The Beginning
by PotentiallyHarmful
Summary: My Skelemom story. This covers the meeting, love of Gaster and Vrinda, and downfall of the underground
1. The city girl

193X

Tensions are already high between humans and monsters. But everyone tends to keep to themselves. There are a few handfuls of humans and monsters that work together and even live near each other. Some actually live TOGETHER. Neither side wants anything to happen… But the side of monsters wants war to happen even less than the humans.

A couple million monsters live around the world. But about 5 million humans cover the earth. The relations have nearly always been uncertain and strained. The humans have corralled almost all monsters into set villages and towns. But the monsters don't mind. They don't fight back. They are too weak…

In one village, a young 15 year old Wingdings Gaster is sewing a hole in a pocket of his pants with a peculiar look on his face. He focuses intently on sewing quickly and accurately. Gaster hates being stuck in the house doing chores and other menial tasks. He wants to go outside and mess around with his friends. But his parents are pretty strict with him… Gaster accepts it though. "If you break it, you fix it." "If you don't eat your dinner then you go to bed with nothing until the morning." Everything had to be earned.

Gaster's father, who is a skeleton, worked a lot. Mostly in the crop fields. Everyone worked together and whatever they harvested they could keep. If one family had too much, they would kindly give it to the family with less. His mother, a Noh faced ghost monster, would also work in the fields often, but she mostly stayed at home taking care of the livestock. And of course she would make Gaster help. Even though he'd groan and complain about boring house work, he would do his job and he would do it well. He loved his parents and he wanted to make them proud and show them that no matter what, he would be there to help them.

Finally done sewing and with no other work, Gaster stands up and rushes to the door and slips his holed feet into some slip on shoes made of leather.

"MOTHER, I'M LEAVING!" He shouted once he stepped out of the house. Somewhere in the back with the animals he could hear his mother saying "Alright!" He sprints off finally free of work. The warm breeze is so nice! The sky is so blue and the trees are a luscious green! Some monsters even have PINK trees! Gaster likes those the most. The ground is mostly dirt, but every home has its own little yard of grass.

At one house with a pink tree, he skids and puts his hands to the side of his face and calls out to a friend that lives there.

"ARE YOU DONE WITH WORK?!" He yells. The mother of his friend peeks out and gives him a glare.

"He is NOT done with work, Wingdings. Come back in an hour when he's finished." She says with irritation. Gaster can only surmise that his friend upset his usually very nice mother. He nods and rushes off to another friend's house.

Gaster whistles at the next place. From the back of the small (but rather tall) hut comes a female owl monster with brown feathers and a cream colored neck tuft. She smiles and rushes over, swinging her winged arms around Gaster in a tight hug.

"Hello Wingdings! What timing you've got, I just finished the wheat storage! Do you know how hard it is for a BIRD not to eat the grains right in front of her? It's REALLY difficult." She says. The two laugh and then rush off to find any other friends that are free. Three more join the group and together they all play a sport ball game. The ball is made of sewn together leather and it's hard on some of their feet, but it's too much fun for any of them to notice the pain.

"Wingdings, over here!" Gaster kicks the ball to them and they rush around and dodge the others to make a goal. The goal is really just two rocks spaced out with some sticks coming out of the ground. This area is a dirt patch of land that's too awful to use for crops. It's also many yards away from the village where only recently some trees have been cut down to make more houses and huts.

The ball makes it through the goal and the opposing team of friends groan at the lost point. But Gaster laughs and cheers with his team. The owl monster rushes to grab the ball from her side of the court.

"Sorry guys! I couldn't stop it in time." She says with little remorse. It is just a game after all. The others just shrug and get back into the gaming mood. Both teams get ready to kick the ball around again until they see a trail of earthy dust coming from the west. Everyone stops and gathers together to look.

"I SEE MONSTER MAGIC." Gaster says. His friends relax. Any time the monsters see a group of human magic approaching them, everyone gets nervous. Some parents will lock their doors and close the blinds, holding their children closely… But this time it's just a group of monsters.

"What do you think they're doing? The West is the pretty nice area isn't it? Why would they come here to the East?" Civette asks one of the others. They just shrug.

"I dunno. I hope nothing happened that forced them to move out. I have a feeling those cheesier's won't like us 'dirt eaters' much." They say with disdain. Gaster agrees silently and folds his arms.

The East and West are extremely different… The West is full of what some monsters might call "suck ups." Some consider them traitors. But most just know that the monsters are dealing with the circumstances they landed in. The Western Monsters work with the more irritating and spoiled humans with their copious amounts of electricity and cars and fancy food.

The East on the other hand is mostly full of the poorer Monsters. Some are poor and some just choose to keep the old style of living. The most electricity they have is the occasional lamp in a nicer home. Gaster's home has one lamp in the kitchen. Many nights are spent in there talking late even when they know they should be sleeping.

After several minutes of watching the group get closer, the kids can finally squint and see more monsters clearer. Once the group gets up to the town, Gaster and his friends have moved to the side. He and two other friends give the gaggle of people some slight glares. An adult monster comes up to the kids.

"Hello children, who owns this town? Can we talk to them?"

"NOBODY /OWNS/ THIS TOWN BUT US." Gaster says. The adult wrings their claws, prepared to ask another question. Another of Gaster's friends steps forward and points to the center of town.

"In the middle of town is the town hall. You can talk to them." The adult nods and rushes off with a "thank you" and the group follows them.

Deep in the center of the large group of perhaps 50 monsters total, is a bright red cloth that catches Gaster's eye. He moves his head around to try and see who it's attached to. It's wrapped around the neck of a girl who's face he can't see. But… part of him believes she's a skeleton! Gaster finally gets an alright angle and can see that she's got the white skull of a skeleton monster! This is actually pretty good news to the boy. It's a bit rare to find skeleton monsters these days. Gaster isn't sure why that is, but he's happy to see one of his own in the group… He wonders what her story is.

The group of people all make it to the town hall and Gaster's friends poke him.

"Hey what are you starin' at Dings? We got a game to get back to!"

"OH RIGHT, SORRY. I FORGOT THAT WE WERE TOTALLY KICKING YOUR BUTT. LET'S GET BACK TO THAT." Gaster says with a grin to his friend. They split back up into their teams and the game continues.

An hour passes when the friends decide they're bored of this game and want to play another one. Gaster rushes to get the ball and agrees calls it quits. The ball has landed just next to a tree. When he runs up to it, someone steps out and also grabs the ball. The two knock heads rather violently and each of them yelp in pain. Gaster grabs his head and sees the red cloth. When he looks up, he sees that skeleton monster from earlier that came in with the group. It's a girl. And Gaster can't stop himself from thinking she's stunning and beautiful… The red scarf wraps around her neck and shoulders and she's got a cream colored floral dress on that goes to her shins. It's so nice and so clean…

"H-HEY WATCH IT YOU!" Gaster says, rubbing his skull. The girl rubs her own skull and blinks at him.

"Sorry… I thought I'd grab your ball for you. You don't have to be a jerk about it." The girl stuffs the ball into Gaster's hands and folds her arms. Gaster takes the ball and stares at her…

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING OVER HERE ANYWAY? DID THE HUMANS KICK YOU OUT OR SOMETHING?" He asks, not masking his annoyed tone. The girl just looks to the side and glares at the ground. She's quiet for a few seconds, thinking of a proper answer… then she nods.

"Yes they did. They said it was for our safety, but I don't buy that drivel."

"FOR YOUR SAFETY? FROM WHAT? IS SOMETHING GOING ON?" Gaster asks, suddenly concerned. The girl unfolds her arms and nods.

"You wouldn't believe what the humans are like now in the city… The technology they have is frightening, and there's so much in-fighting I'm scared they're going to start a war within their own ranks… The town we lived in told us all to pack up and leave because we were unsafe. But I'm wondering if it's just because they wanted to expand their own land and we were in the way…" She looks up into the sky and sighs. Gaster can see that she's quite upset. He tries to imagine what she went through, suddenly being forced to move from her home.

"THAT SOUNDS SCARY… AND STUPID. HOW LIKE THE HUMANS… WHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING TO BE LIVING NOW?"

"Here. It's the only place that we can stay for now… I don't know for how long, but this place will be our home too."

Gaster's eyes go wide. This place doesn't have room for more people! They're beginning to overcrowd as it is since the humans made the borders so tight! How is their town supposed to support these new monsters? He knows the adults will do their best, but Gaster isn't entirely sure he wants to help! They're going to take everything without even having worked for it!

"GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU WILL BE STARVING. SOME OF US ARE BEING FORCED TO EAT HUMAN FOOD JUST TO SURVIVE…" He can't put his finger on why he's being so mean to this girl, but he can't help it. This girl and her group of people are going to make life so much harder for the monsters already living here. He just sighs and turns around and goes back to his friend without a second look back. The girl stands there in shock at this boy's rudeness.

"I…Well I won't be asking for help from YOU that's for sure!" She calls after him and speed walks away. Gaster gets back to his friends and they all ask him questions about the new girl. He explains everything and the others are a bit concerned…. Is this the beginning of the end for this town?

()

A very difficult week goes by. All the monsters help the new group move in and they help make huts and houses and Gaster is forced to help till the fields for several houses so they can make their own crops. One of the houses belongs to the skeleton girl. A few times he notices her watching him from inside the house through the window. He'll glare and she'll glare back. It's quite childish.

Finally able to take a break, Gaster lays down in the grass in front of his house. His mother and father have allowed him to shirk some of his duties since he's been doing double his workload this week. Normally his father would make a special pie for new comers or for extra hard work, but any spare ingredients they had were given to other families so they can settle in. Outwardly Gaster says he doesn't mind at all. But inside he REALLY wants that pie. Being selfish in silence is so irritating!

Above him he hears someone touch the wooden fence in front of the house. He looks upside down at whoever—ah it's that girl again.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?" He says. The girl is holding her red scarf and she looks ready to cry with frustration. Gaster sits up, never having seen that expression on her before… But he maintains his attitude.

"I… I… I need… your help." It's clear that she's having a hard time asking for help. She did say that she wouldn't ask for Gaster's help after all and yet here she is.

"WOW WHAT A SURPRISE THAT IS. THE SPOILED GIRL NEEDS MORE HELP."

"Please?... It's super easy." Gaster notes her tone. She really IS about to cry. He sighs and stands up. Wingdings knows for a fact that if his parents caught him being rude to a lady he'd have TRIPLE his workload piled onto him. With a roll of his shoulder he goes over to the gate and opens it.

"FINE. COME IN AND TELL ME WHAT THE PROBLEM IS THIS TIME." He relaxes his tone and opens the front door of the house to the girl. She walks into the gate and closes it behind her then nods to Gaster as she ducks into the house. Gaster gets a cushioned seat and pulls it out for the girl and he notices that she's wearing the same dress. She's BEEN wearing the same dress for a week at least. The edges have begun to fray terribly. Her hands have dirt on them. Did she try working in the yard or something? A spoiled girl like this? Heh, interesting.

The skeleton girl sits down with the red scarf in her hands and Gaster sits down on a chair in front of her.

"My-… I was… I was trying to move the tilling plow so I could do a line of my own crops… I don't want to bother my parents by taking any of their food so I wanted to make my own. And when I was trying to move it, my… my very precious scarf got ripped. I tripped over it and…" Her sockets swell up with fresh tears. She quickly wipes them away and looks back up at Gaster.

"And as embarrassing enough as this is-…" Gaster raises a brow with surprise.

"DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T /SEW/…" The girl looks back down… and shakes her head.

"No. My mother always did the sewing. So I have no idea how to fix my scarf. And I saw you doing some work a few days ago on someone's curtains."

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST ASK YOUR MOM FOR HELP?"

"She's very busy now. I don't want to bother her with my foolishness and clumsiness… You were the only person I knew even a LITTLE bit that I thought I could ask help for. So now that you've made me say it, please won't you help me?... I don't know yet how I'd repay you, but I promise I will! Do you trust me? Even a little?"

Gaster stares at the girl, her dirty hands, fraying dress and ripped scarf. He was sure that she wouldn't be able to adjust at all to this lifestyle in comparison to city living. But she's trying to make her OWN food separate from her parents and she tried working the plow… He has to give her credit for that at least. Gaster decides to help her. But on the inside he tries to tell himself it's because she's pretty and that's IT.

"FINE, I'LL FIX IT. STAY HERE. I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO SEW. IT'S REALLY EASY ACTUALLY, EVEN WITH OUR SLIPPERY BONEY FINGERS." Gaster gets up and finds a small sewing kit in his room then rushes out and sits back down, taking the scarf away from her. He studies it and finds the tear.

"Uhm… I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at all… No wonder you don't like me much. I'm Vrinda." She says. Gaster looks up at her. She's taking blame for Gaster being mean to her? Gaster's insides twist up a little. He knows it was his own selfish childish nature that made him be mean to her. Guilt creeps up into his cheeks.

"I'M WINGDINGS GASTER. AND UH… I'M THE ONE THAT'S SORRY. I WAS A JERK TO YOU THE DAY WE MET. IT WAS FOR A STUPID REASON." Gaster stares down the hole of a needle as he threads it in one go. Red thread. Such a thing is rare for a small town like this, but he didn't want to give her any other color. It would look silly. And this beautiful scarf looking silly on a beautiful girl is unacceptable… Wow, what are these thoughts? Stop that, she's just some girl!

"Wingdings Gaster… That's a very old language. Wingdings is. Do you know how to speak it?" Vrinda asks, trying to tiptoe into the subject. Gaster looks away from his needle placement and right into Vrinda's eyes. He shouldn't be surprised that another skeleton knows what that language is, but living in a town with no skeletons besides himself and his father, this is surprising to him. He nods.

"I CERTAINLY DO. MY PARENTS AND I SPEAK THAT NORMALLY WHEN IT'S JUST US."

"Say something in Wingdings!" Vrinda says with some excitement. Gaster just squints at her.

"[[I THINK YOU'RE A DOOKY HEAD SPOILED BRAT.]]" Gaster says. Vrinda glares

"Jeez, you coulda just said something like 'the sky is blue and grass is green' instead of being snarky. [[Two can play at that game you donkey's rear end.]]" Gaster feels his soul beat a bit harder. Her voice in that language is beautiful. He can't help but laugh and smile widely. It's so nice to hear someone else speak his language.

"WOW, YOU SPEAK IT PRETTY FLUENTLY TOO. THAT'S A RARE SOUND THESE DAYS. A DONKEY'S REAR END HUH? SO I'M AN ASSES ASS?" He says with a snicker. Vrinda can't stifle her giggle. She puts her hand over her mouth to at least attempt to mask the noise. But Gaster heard it loud and clear.

"Language mister. You're not supposed to curse in front of a lady."

"[[I SEE NO LADY HERE.]]" Gaster says and smirks. Vrinda just reaches over and baps Gaster's leg a little, playfully with a smile.

"Now now, show me how to sew. I haven't got all day Wingdings."

"YOU CAN JUST CALL ME GASTER. IT'S QUICKER. NOW PAY ATTENTION, I'M NOT GONNA TEACH YOU AGAIN."

Gaster spends the next hour and a half teaching Vrinda to sew. They giggle and speak in Wingdings a lot. Vrinda insists that she knows how to do the proper pattern, but when she tries she drops the needle several times. But each time, Gaster helps her and rethreads it and shows her again even though he said he wouldn't.

Gaster's father walks in the door and sees the two sitting at the table and asks what they're doing? The two scoot away from each other, not noticing how close they'd gotten during that time and they each explain with varying degrees of embarrassment.

But finally the scarf is finished. The two kids stand up and Gaster wraps the scarf around her neck for her and then swings the end of it over her face with a snicker. She laughs and takes it off, then stares at the perfect mending job they both did.

"It's got a battle scar, but… I think it was worth it in the end. Thank you so much for helping me Gaster. Do you have any ideas for how you want me to repay you?"

With a wave of his hand Gaster shakes his head.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO REPAY ME… BUT I GUESS YOU COULD TELL ME WHY THAT SCARF IS SO IMPORTANT TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE." Vrinda smiles fondly at the scarf and feels the fabric between her fingers.

"My father bought it for my mother when they first started dating. And then my mom gave it to me. It's just a piece of cloth, but it means a lot to me and my parents. I'm hoping that someday I can give it to the guy I'm with and we'll be just as happy and in love as my parents were."

Gaster gulps a little. Gosh that IS important. "I'M GLAD WE COULD FIX IT. MAYBE NEXT TIME DON'T WEAR IT WHEN YOU'RE WORKING." Vrinda nods.

"I won't make that mistake again that's for sure…. Oh my gosh what time is it?" Gaster walks over to the window and looks at the sun.

"I'D CALL IT ABOUT TWO O CLOCK? YOUR PARENTS ARE PROBABLY WONDERING WHERE YOU ARE."

"Worse than that, I have to make dinner! It's going to take forever if I don't leave now. I'll see you later Gaster!" She says, rushing to the door.

"Thanks so much again for helping me fix my scarf!" Vrinda runs outside and Gaster pokes his head out the door and waves at her.

"[[HEY IF YOU NEED MY HELP AGAIN YOU CAN COME TO ME IF YOU WANT!]]" He calls after her in Wingdings. She turns around and waves with a smile, confirming that she will indeed. Gaster stands there and watches her rush back home and can't help but notice how good he feels… That's so strange, considering not long ago he didn't even like her for being a spoiled brat. Perhaps it's because he realized that he was being a jerk first… and he didn't know that she was trying to help her family instead of just sitting back like a princess or something and not working. And that she's funny and pretty smart. It occurs to him that he's probably Vrinda's first friend in this town.

Gaster's father comes up behind him with a sly smirk on his face.

"Starin' at her gams boy?" He says. Gaster gasps and goes back inside quickly trying to hide any purple blush that might come up. Why would be blush anyway?

"NO I AM NOT LOOKING AT HER LEGS /DAD/." He says and rushes to the hamper to start doing laundry even though he doesn't need to.

It might be hard for Gaster to see, but his father is not blind. He thinks his son has a small crush on that girl. This should be interesting indeed.


	2. Two souls

Two days after Gaster helped fix Vrinda's scarf.

Gaster is outside pitchforking some hay into a wheelbarrow to rush over to a neighbor's house for their livestock. Ever since the city people came to this small town, Gaster has wondered what living in the city is like. No shoveling animal crap, no pitchforking hay, maybe some really really good food, some actually clean clothes… Farm life is hard and he's never questioned city living before, but now he can't help but let his mind wander. And yet the second he thinks about the HUMANS that live there too, he shakes his head and is thankful for this life he has. It's gotta be easier than the drama lights and speed of the city. Blech! How did Vrinda and her group deal with it? Gaster thinks he might have run away at some point.

With enough hay in the wheelbarrow, Gaster rushes off to the neighbor's house. The neighbor thanks him and gives him a small slice of pie that they'd made. Gaster declines and insists that he needs no reward. But the neighbor persists and Gaster ends up walking home with a piece of pie on a green and cream colored plate. It's a sweet rhubarb pie FILLED with magic. Ah he cannot WAIT to eat this.

"[[Gaster!]]" A girl voice comes in wingdings. Gaster looks around and he spots Vrinda waving at him from a few houses down. He didn't realize how close her house was to his until just now. He waves back. Vrinda runs over to him with a big smile and jumps in front of him.

"[[Gaster, guess what! I finished plowing my side of the crops! Can I show you please please pleeeeease?]]" Her smile is huge and Gaster can't stop a flood of positive feelings crashing into him. He nods and returns the smile. A thought passes through and he decides to act.

"[[SURE. IF YOU DID A GOOD ENOUGH JOB THEN I'LL SHARE MY SLICE OF PIE WITH YOU. HOW'S THAT SOUND?]]"

Vrinda's eyes shoot up a little surprised. She knew Gaster was capable of being nice, but for him to offer a share of his pie that he worked for? That's unusual. But she accepts, confident in her work.

"[[You're on.]]" The two return to Vrinda's house and Gaster sets the plate down before they go to the back yard that is now just crop field. At first Gaster can't tell where Vrinda's personal crop is exactly… Vrinda watches Gaster search and it only makes her happier.

"WELL WHERE IS IT?" Gaster says, deciding to stop speaking in wingdings. English is faster.

"HeeHeeHeeeee! So you can't tell! I did such a good job that you can't even tell!" Vrinda folds her arms with pride and she swings her red scarf over her shoulder with sass. Gaster looks at her with a chuckle and he realizes that she's got a new dress on today. It's a very pretty blue with tiny white dots all over it. He nearly comments on how nice it looks on her, but he stops himself. He can't just blurt out compliments to this girl, her head will explode from all the hot air.

"PSH. I'LL FIND THEM." Gaster steps down from the two step patio and walks around the crops. He DID help make most of these after all. After a few seconds of looking he points to a back row of crops facing the wrong direction from the others.

"THESE LINES ARE YOURS."

"Awww How did you figure it out?" Vrinda rushes over to him and stares at her little 5x5 foot square section.

"ONLY A MORON WOULD MAKE A CROP THIS SMALL. ARE YOU GOING TO EAT JUST ONE KIND OF FOOD YOUR WHOLE LIFE?"

"You're so mean! I don't know how big crops are supposed to be Wingdings. Did I do a good job or didn't I?" Vrinda says, folding her arms again but in a pouty way this time.

"I GUESS FOR THE SMALL PATCH YOU DID THEY'RE PRETTY GOOD. BUT IF YOU WANT TO EAT MORE THAN JUST CORN FOR A MONTH THEN YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE THIS BIGGER. EVEN FOR ONE MONSTER A SECTION LIKE THIS WON'T FEED THEM FOR VERY LONG. YOU'LL HAVE TO MAKE SEVERAL MORE OF THESE TO—"

"Listen dingbat is it good enough for a couple bites of your pie or isn't it?" Vrinda interrupts. Gaster looks at her and chuckles at her expression. She's adamant about that pie. So Gaster just rolls his eyes and shrugs.

"YEAH IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR A COUPLE BITES OF PIE." He turns around and Vrinda follows him back inside.

"HOW DID YOU EVEN TRIP AND RIP YOUR SCARF ON JUST THAT SMALL SECTION? DID YOU ACTUALLY USE A BIG GIANT PLOW TO MAKE IT?"

"I didn't think there was any other tool to do it with. It's called a PLOW for heaven's sake of course I used it! Gosh I just can't do anything right can I?"

The two sit down at the table and Gaster spots that she's actually genuinely upset…. Is he being a jerk again? He can't tell. City girls are complicated!

"I MEAN…. UH… WELL… YOU JUST AREN'T USED TO THIS UH… THIS KINDA LIFE STYLE I GUESS?" Is that supposed to make her feel better? Will that work? He's sure it won't. As expected, Vrinda slumps in her seat. Gaster stares at her and he CAN'T BELIEVE how upset her sad face makes him. He must make it go away before he feels too much more. He stands up and rifles through the drawers until he finds the utensils and grabs out two forks. When he comes back he takes Vrinda out of her thoughts by holding one of the forks out to her and smiles.

"I THINK FOR WHAT YOU DID IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. YOU'LL LEARN QUICKLY I'M SURE."

Vrinda looks up at him and then at the fork… then up at him again… and gives him a small smile. She takes the fork and sits up.

"Thanks… I'm sure it looks terrible to you since you're really good at doing that sorta stuff. But! I'm not looking for pity or anything… I mean maybe a little, but not that much. I HATE asking my parents for help because they've already done everything for me you know?... I guess it's just hitting me that I really have been a spoiled kid growing up. I don't know ANYTHING! I can't sew, I can't cook without burning something, and I can't plow my own crops right, and I don't know how to fix lights or anything!"

"HOLD ON A SECOND, WHERE DID THE FIXING LIGHTS COME FROM?" Gaster asks curiously as he stabs the tip of the pie and stuffs the piece into his mouth. GOD he loves rhubarb pie it's so sour and sweet all in one bite. Vrinda gets a piece with some crust on it and then nods her head to a stand up lamp sitting on an end table. It's pretty fancy. Metal base and shaft and then a fabric cover.

"Mom insisted we take this stupid lamp with us when we were leaving. She packed it in her suitcase with all the love and tenderness she could and the thing ended up breaking anyway. The bulbs we put in it are all perfectly fine and the cord is fine too. We even tried using magic to make it work again, but it just won't go back to normal. I tried to take it apart but I couldn't see anything wrong, so I just put it back together and sat it there. I'm hoping that the lamp will just sorta…. start working again."

Gaster looks at it and he thinks he knows exactly what's up. Fancy lamps like that are extremely uncommon in this town, but Gaster has had to fix a few of them.

"HUH. THAT'S A RIGHT SHAME THERE. IT'S A NICE LAMP TOO. BUT I HAVE A FEELING IT'LL START WORKING AGAIN SOON." He takes another bite and finally takes a good look around the house. Nice place. This house in particular stopped being used when the old monster who lived here before finally just turned to dust one day.

"ANYWAY, ABOUT YOUR CROPS. I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO MAKE SMALL PATCHES MUCH FASTER. THE ONLY THING IS PRINCESS, YOU HAVE TO GET DIRTY."

Vrinda stabs the pie with determination and stuffs a rather large piece in her mouth.

"Listen Gaster, if you call me princess ever again I'll stab this fork right into your hand." Gaster chuckles and raises both hands. They each have a hole in the center.

"GOOD LUCK WITH THAT." Vrinda seems mildly amazed, but she's quick to reign it back and return to her "irritated" face.

"Either way, how could I possibly get filthier than using that disgusting plow?"

"YOU'LL HAVE TO USE YOUR HANDS. YOU'LL HAVE TO USE A SHOVEL AND YOUR HANDS TO GET IN THE DIRT AND DIGS HOLES. AND THEN YOU GOTTA WATER EVERYTHING AND THAT MEANS YOU'LL GET MUD ALL OVER YOU. THINK YOU CAN HANDLE IT? PRINCESS?" Gaster says with a sneer. Vrinda squints at him and takes another piece of pie and crams it in her mouth. She talks with her mouth nearly full.

"I can handle it just fine thank you very much. And I'll do it a LOT better if you DON'T CALL ME PRINCESS ANYMORE." She points her fork at Gaster and smiles. Gaster thinks he likes this girl. She is not at ALL like a typical lady of this time is supposed to be. Elbows on the table, pointing at people with utensils, talking with her mouth full… Vrinda is right, she is NO princess. And it's nice to see that instead of a prim prissy snob, she's just a kid who's being forced to learn this new way of life.

Eventually the two leave the house and gather up Gaster's friends to play some games. The other kids are a little wary around the city girl. On top of that, they're all wondering why Gaster is actually hanging out with her all of a sudden seeing as how he wasn't too fond of her when they first met. But either way, the group accepts Vrinda into the games. She seems to be nice.

A long three hours passes and they play all sorts of games and have a LOT of fun. Vrinda is accepted into the group as one of their own.

The owl monster kicks the ball they're playing with into a very tall and lush tree. The ball doesn't come back down.

"Woops! Oh no! I'm sorry guys…"

"DON'T WORRY, I GOT IT." Gaster runs over to the tree and lifts his hand. It glows purple and a very large disembodied hand with a hole in the center floats up into the tree. Vrinda watches amazed. She's never seen this sort of magic before. He can make solid things with his magic? And it's a BEAUTIFUL purple… She stares. The others notice her staring with absolute wonder and give each other all grins. They know what's up.

Gaster's magic hand grabs the ball and begins to bring it down. It drops it into Gaster's real hands and then disappears. When he turns around, both of his eyes are dimming down from purple to white. It's here that Vrinda knows that Wingdings Gaster is a powerful monster. She hasn't "CHECKED" him yet because usually they're no need to since Monster's don't really fight each other. Gaster walks back with the ball, but stops when he hears one of his friend's fathers calling for them.

"Uh oh. Looks like I gotta go guys. Dinner's ready. See ya!" The friend runs off and the others wave. One by one, each monster has to return home until it's just Gaster and Vrinda left.

"Gosh. That happened fast. Is it normally like that with them?"

"YEAH. WHEN DINNER'S READY, YOU GET HOME OR YOU DON'T EAT. AT LEAST THAT'S HOW MY PARENTS ARE ANYWAY. WHAT ABOUT YOUR PARENTS? THEY GET HOME PRETTY LATE RIGHT? WHAT DO THEY DO?" Gaster walks to a nearby tree with Vrinda and the two sit down. It's not even getting dark though. And yet it must be nearly 5 o clock PM.

"My parents have taken up jobs at the town hall. Before we moved here they were office workers. So now they're kinda back in their element. They're still getting used to not having to actually stay in the office until 6. Even if they finish work they just stay there." Vrinda shrugs and leans against the tree. She sighs and smiles.

"But that just gives me extra time to hang out with you and your friends! Everyone was so nice to me once they got used to my presence. I-… I didn't have many friends before I moved here. The ones that I DID have… I guess I feel like they were using me and my parents to get what they wanted. A lot of them were human so it really shouldn't surprise me."

Gaster looks over at her and gives her a playful light elbow to the arm.

"SORRY ABOUT THAT. BUT NO MATTER HOW MANY YOU DID OR DIDN'T HAVE, YOU'VE GOT US NOW. AND WE'RE CERTAINLY NOT HUMAN. WE WON'T EVER BE LIKE THAT TO YOU."

Vrinda looks over and up at Gaster with a big happy smile. It takes her a second, but she starts to feel a warmth in her chest… No, don't be silly. It must be how warm it is outside. How nice the breeze is and how nice the wind sounds, or how peacefully quiet it is out here compared to the city. It's certainly not Gaster that's making her feel this way… Is it?

"Thanks. I know you won't. Ah, uhm… could… could we maybe hang out more? I've never had another skeleton as a friend before. It's really-… it's really nice I guess." She looks away, unable to believe that she just blurted such a thing out. Just outta nowhere!

Gaster stares down at her shorter form and can't describe how happy he is that she said that. But he must maintain his composure. Stay cool Gaster. Deep unnecessary breaths!

"SURE." Is all he can manage. "Sure"? That's it?

"I'D LIKE THAT A LOT ACTUALLY." He finishes. The two smile at each other and then they sit there in silence for nearly 20 minutes. Just being in each other's company is nice enough in this perfect weather.

The next day, Vrinda finds her mother's lamp working.

()

Three months go by and everyone has settled in nicely. Things are back to normal for the original residents and oddly enough, things are even better. The city monsters had some good friends from the city bring them magic food ingredients, some more electricity items, some comfortable chairs and even a few gramophones. They've become more popular than ever to the humans. New vinyl records have begun to come out as well. Vrinda invites Gaster over to her house so they can dance when her parents aren't home. They move all the furniture to the walls and swing each other around in the living room. It's great fun. Many times the entire group of friends will go over and have their own little dance parties.

After one of these dance party nights, Gaster and Vrinda decide to take a walk. The only light they get is the light from the moon and stars. It's a warm summer night and Gaster knows exactly what he wants to do. He's going to show Vrinda his special stargazing spot.

"You are a terrible dancer Gaster!" Vrinda laughs. Gaster rolls his eyes and takes her hand, giving her a spin. The hem of her yellow summer dress spins beautifully. When the spin is over, she leans into Gaster before righting herself. It's quick and normally neither one would note the action as anything but a misstep. But the two know it was more meaningful than that.

"WELL EXCUSE ME FOR NOT TAKING DANCING CLASSES. YOU CAN JUST TEACH ME CAN'T YOU? THE 'PROPER' WAY TO DANCE?"

"I could if you really wanted me to." She doesn't let go of Gaster's hand.

"THAT'D BE NICE I THINK. HEY UH, I WANTED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING. THINK YOUR PARENTS WILL GET MAD IF I KEEP YOU OUT FOR A LITTLE LONGER?"

"Hm… I don't think they'll mind." Vrinda knows they MIGHT mind, but she doesn't care. All she wants is to stay with Gaster.

"GOOD THIS WAY." Gaster leads her by the hand and he tries to hide his face as much as possible. He doesn't want Vrinda to see how wide his smile is and how purple his cheeks are. Vrinda stares at their hands. She's very aware of Gaster's body language by now and she can tell that he's excited about something. And she can't wait to see what he has in store for her.

They leave the town all together. Not too far, but not close enough for anyone to see them. Gaster summons a large magical hand. There is no hole in the center. Vrinda finds this unusual. She didn't think Gaster could make a hand without a hole in it!

"STEP ON." Gaster helps her up and then he stands on the hand as well. It lifts slowly into the air. Vrinda wraps her arms around Gaster's ribs in shock. He laughs and puts his arms around her so she'll feel a bit safer.

"DON'T BE SCARED. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME."

"I should hope so. I think my parents will get mad if they see a pile of dust." She jokes.

"WELL IF THAT HAPPENS IT'LL PROBABLY BE TWO PILES OF DUST ANYWAY." Gaster jokes back. The two giggle.

They go higher and higher into the air until all around them is just stars and nothing else.

"THIS IS HOW I LOOK AT THE STARS AND THE MOON. IT'S QUIET AND THE LIGHTS CAN'T REACH UP HERE SO WE HAVE AN EVEN CLEARER VIEW… DO YOU LIKE IT?" Gaster asks. He peeks down at Vrinda who still hasn't released his ribs at all. But she stares up and gazes in wonder.

"It's so beautiful… I feel like I could touch the moon. I love it." The two stare into the sky and stay silent. The moment is perfect and any noise might ruin this amazing feeling. Vrinda rests her skull on Gaster's sternum. Both of them can feel their souls beating in time. It's powerful and undeniable.

"Gaster?" Vrinda says quietly. Gaster hums in response.

"What are you thinking about?" A gulp begins to form in Gaster's throat. He holds it down and just huffs a tiny laugh.

"[[YOU.]]" He says. His voice sounds sure. Surer than he thought it would sound. Vrinda shifts her head and she stares at Gaster.

"[[Look at me?]] She asks. Gaster looks down and can no longer hide his blush or glowing purple eyes. Vrinda's eyes both glow Yellow.

She reaches one hand up to Gaster's face and rubs her thumb on his cheek.

"[[WHAT ARE /YOU/ THINKING ABOUT?]]"

"[[You. I'm always thinking about you… Gaster… I… I love you so much…]]" Gaster can see that she's worried. She said something heavy and she's worried that Gaster may pull away. But he does not. He pulls her closer and puts both of his hands on her face.

"[[I LOVE YOU TOO VRINDA. MORE THAN ANYTHING. THE WAY MY SOUL FEELS WHEN YOU'RE WITH ME IS SO STRONG IT HURTS SOMETIMES. BUT IT'S THE BEST PAIN I COULD EVER ASK FOR.]]"

Vrinda laughs because she can't contain her happiness. It's bursting out and all she wants to do is melt together with Gaster. The two stare at each other and finally lean in and clack their faces together in a kiss. Neither was sure such an amazing, electric, warm feeling existed. But together they feel it. Loud and clear, resonating.

The stargazing ends and eventually after an hour the two return to the ground and walk back to the village hand in hand. Part of Gaster wonders if their parents will be mad with them since they're so young. Monsters live much longer than humans do if there's no interference. For humans in this time period, dating and even getting married at such a young age is normal. But Gaster isn't exactly sure that such rules apply to monsters. Either way, he sets those thoughts aside and thumbs at Vrinda's hand in his, just to remind himself that this really is happening. Vrinda giggles and Gaster looks down at her. She looks up at him and swings their hands a bit.

"[[I'm really glad, you know? That I was able to tell you how I felt. It was so nice to say the words to your face finally.]]"

"[[HEHE. YOU'RE BRAVER THAN ME. I WAS PLANNING ON TELLING YOU FIRST. I WANTED TO TELL YOU MY FEELINGS WHERE ONLY YOU AND THE MOON COULD HEAR THEM.]]"

"[[You romantic sap.]]"

"[[YOU LIKED IT, DON'T LIE.]]" The two giggle together and nearly dance the rest of the way back to Vrinda's home. All of their friends cleared out and went home. Vrinda wonders if they all know about her and Gaster. That maybe they have all along. They never say anything when the two go off alone.

Gaster helps her up the steps. She looks down at him and can't bring herself to let go of his hand.

"I guess-… m… I'll see you tomorrow, Wingdings."

"I'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW, VRINDA. I LOVE YOU." Gaster says with a smile. Vrinda covers her mouth and holds back an excited squeal. She nods.

"I love you too."

They finally let each other go and Vrinda goes inside. She leans against the front door and grips her dress at her chest. Today was the best day ever.

Gaster stands outside for a few extra seconds until he shakes his head quickly to dislodge himself from his spot and walk home. It's real. He didn't think it would happen but here he is. These feelings have been boiling and rising to the surface for a while now. It's sudden, he admits. But he doesn't care. This feeling is so right and he feels like a whole monster. When he figured out he loved her, it was then that he felt the empty space in his bones. In his heart and soul.

He walks into his house and doesn't sleep that night. He's so filled with positive emotions it totally hinders sleep. Gaster doesn't care. Thinking about Vrinda is much nicer than sleeping. Yet sleep takes him eventually.

()

Three years go by. Breaking the news to each of their parents went much better than either Gaster or Vrinda thought it would. They were fully supported. All of their friends knew the whole time that this would happen. But everything remains normal. Not awkward or weird or anything. The perfect situation.

At 18, the two get married and move into their own home together. They still help their parents and neighbors of course. So really nothing has changed much. Except everything. EVERYTHING has changed. Chores are so much fun to do now. They know that the other will appreciate what they did. All of the work is equal and exactly half. Doing dishes is easy, dusting is fun because they dance and let the windows open and play music on the gramophone, making dinner together becomes dramatic soap operas that they act out and then laugh at for their cheesy nature. Vrinda wraps her scarf around Gaster's neck and kisses him every chance she gets. Gaster loves it. Together they stargaze, watch the sun set and the sun rise often.

Seasons come and go. They two build snowmen together in winter and jump in leaf piles in the autumn. Flowers and crops are planted in the spring and then everything is collected in the summer. Their home has flowers at every window sill and in the middle of the table all the time.

Vrinda takes Gaster to the city once for a two week exploratory vacation. It's a long walk, but since neither of them have muscles they don't really get tired at all and make it to the city in just one day. Gaster is nervous and wary the whole time. Humans are strange and their technology is strange. And yet he takes a liking to the electronics and such. The library becomes one of his favorite places and in his free time he reads almost every single scientific book they have. Locomotives, light fixtures, how to build things. Gaster knows that this is what he wants to do for a living. Somehow, someway. Being a mechanic would be a synch! Being a scientist would be fun! Maybe he could help humans and monsters alike with medicine and cures for things!

Vrinda listens and watches with a big smile when Gaster goes on overly excited tangents about his big dreams. She supports him the whole time and says that she wants to go with him! Maybe she could be a nurse or something! And so Vrinda begins to study medical books. The science books that Gaster reads are pretty helpful too. Not a day goes by that the two aren't freaking out over how cool everything is and how awesome their lives are going to be together. Everything is perfect.

And then it all comes crashing down.


	3. Blue eye'd surprise

194X

20 year old Gaster and Vrinda are home reading on their extremely floral loveseat. It's a perfectly quiet day out and a cold breeze comes in through the open window. The tan curtains flap and gain her attention. She looks up and away from her book to the window over her shoulder.

"Did you feel that? It feels like autumn just said 'hello' for a second." She waits for a response but gets none. Gaster is VERY into his book and didn't even register that she said anything. Vrinda just smiles and leans in and kisses his cheek.

"Hey I know you don't have ears but we're literally sitting right next to each other."

"HUH? OH SORRY I—WHAT DID YOU SAY?" He smooches her head as a small apology. It works.

"I said it's getting close to autumn. The wind is cold. Looks like we'll have to hurry up and harvest whatever we have left and get to jarring and stuff."

Gaster nods and puts a bookmark in his book. "Electronic Orbits in the Induction Accelerator" by D.W Kerst.

"THAT'S GOING TO BE FUN…" His tone is both sarcastic and unenthusiastic. He HATES jarring. It's so bothersome… Vrinda just giggles and stands up, also putting a bookmark in her own book. A matching bookmark.

"Aw don't be a baby. It'll be easy this time. And you know what I was thinking? Maybe if we have enough left over we can sell some of the jars to the humans in the city!"

This REALLY bugs Gaster… The last few years have seen the humans become more and more aggressive towards monsters. Then again they're aggressive towards themselves too. Humans on the other side of the planet have started several wars. There have been no monster casualties yet since the humans have pretty much taken over that area anyway. But Gaster knows… He just KNOWS something is going to happen and he wonders what the king and queen are going to do about it. They haven't done much so far and Gaster is honestly a little bitter about it.

"THE ONLY REASON I WOULD AGREE TO SUCH A THING IS BECAUSE WE COULD HIKE UP THE PRICES TO RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS AND THOSE FOOLS WOULD STILL PAY FOR IT. ALTHOUGH I'M SURE THEY'D THINK WE POISONED IT ANYWAY." Gaster stands up and Vrinda takes his hands in her smaller ones.

"My GOSH you are cynical today, Wingdings. Not ALL humans are mean, you know that."

Gaster sighs and holds her hands back, thumbing her metacarpal bones.

"I KNOW. I JUST DON'T WANT TO GET MY HOPES UP AND THEN HAVE THEM DASHED. HAVING A HUMAN BE RUDE TO YOU AFTER YOU OFFERED SOME KINDNESS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY. HONESTLY THE ONLY REASON I DON'T BLOW UP IS BECAUSE YOU'RE THERE TO GROUND ME. IT'S DIFFICULT THOUGH." He leans down and kisses her and then gives her a twirl, holding her hand in the air. Vrinda spins on her foot once slowly and then stands on her tippy toes and kisses him back.

"Oh Gaster you poor thing. I really wish you wouldn't get THAT upset… When they're mean to you, YOU don't say anything about it. You just take it and you stay polite. But I guess I feel your position. When they're mean to you and you stay quiet I can't help but feel the need to give them some sass. At least a little bit."

"AND THAT'S ONE REASON WHY I LOVE YOU. I LOVE IT WHEN YOU GIVE PEOPLE SASS. IT'S LOVELY." Gaster gives her a grin. Vrinda snerks and walks off, bringing Gaster with her by the hand. And of course he follows like a dopey puppy on a leash. He loves it.

She goes out back to their little field of crops and sighs.

"It's not much work, but enough that I don't look forward to it much. But you'll be there so it won't be that bad."

"WHO'S THE HOPELESS ROMANTIC SAP NOW HUH?" They smile at each other and then return inside the house to get baskets and other things to collect the crops with. When they return outside, it's clear now that it's gotten much colder. While skeletons obviously don't have any skin, they're not completely incapable of feeling the difference between hot and cold. They simply feel temperatures in a different way.

"Gaster dear can I talk to you about something?" Vrinda finally says about half an hour into collection. Gaster stops what he's doing and looks over at his wife. That's an interesting way to phrase something. It's unlike her.

"OF COURSE YOU CAN. I'M ALL EARS." Vrinda snickers at the ears joke. Then she returns to her question.

"While I'm not as cynical as you are and don't have the same opinions as you on the humans, I wonder what your thoughts are for… Well what if… What if the humans and monsters start fighting?"

Gaster sits crouched in the dirt staring hard at his beautiful skeleton wife. That is… a very scary question to think of an answer for. He doesn't like it one bit. What's worse is that he can't hold back a terrible feeling in his gut.

"IF HUMANS AND MONSTERS START FIGHTING? I KNOW TENSIONS ARE HIGH LOVE, BUT WHAT EXACTLY BROUGHT THAT UP?" He goes back to picking some vegetables and infusing them with magic before putting them in his basket. Vrinda stands up and stretches and fixes her dress and tan apron.

"Well, in my book it was talking about magical wounds inflicted by monsters on humans and I wondered why such a thing was even in a different section of the book. Why wasn't it called 'magic wounds'? Why 'Monster magic wounds'? Humans have magic too! Not all of them have it and those who do don't have very much and can't control it but… it just got me thinking."

A crow flies over head and lands on their fence several feet away.

"The humans have been becoming more physical lately and it's worrying me a bit… I don't know, my thoughts have been spiraling for a few days and now I can't make it stop. So uh… I could really use some of your—"

Gaster walks across the dirt and hugs Vrinda tightly. She relaxes and rests her skull on Gaster's shoulder and hugs him back.

"VRINDA IF SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER HAPPENS, WE'LL RUN AWAY. WE'LL TAKE EVERYONE AND WE'LL HIDE FOR A WHILE UNTIL IT BLOWS OVER. I WON'T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU OKAY?" Gaster says as calmly as he can and kisses the top of her skull. He does his best to hide his dimly glowing eyes so she can't see how upset the THOUGHT of something happening to her makes him. But Vrinda can feel the magic flowing quickly in his soul. She smiles and hugs him tighter. Her soul flows with magic as well and she does her best to relax Gaster. It works. This is a common practice for monsters to help another monster relax. Although a strong bond makes it easier.

"I'm sorry I made you upset Gaster."

"DON'T BE SORRY. I'M GLAD YOU MENTIONED THIS TO ME. I'LL TRY TO CALM DOWN." He takes a breath and allows himself to relax… The two part only several inches and look into each other's eyes. Both of their eyes glow together and then everything is calm.

"BUT I WILL PROTECT YOU. DO YOU TRUST ME?"

"You stole that from ME." She giggles. With a nod she bends down and picks up her basket full of veggies with some grains on top.

"Yes. I trust you… to pick up that basket and get back to picking! The suns almost gone!" Vrinda smiles at Gaster and then starts picking more grains. Gaster just face palms and sighs, going back to his basket.

"FIRST YOU WORRY ME AND THEN YOU BOSS ME AROUND. YOU'RE SO CRUEL TO ME VRINDA." He says jokingly. A tiny snicker from Vrinda is heard from across the field.

The feeling in Gaster's stomach won't go away though. Vrinda blew the subject off with a joke and smiled like nothing was wrong. But he knows better. She's scared and he can't blame her. Even with Vrinda's calming magic to slow him down, he's still nervous and anxious… His wife is scared… He'll have to use his magic a bit and hone whatever abilities he has from now on so he can get better. Just in case.

()

A couple hours later, the two have finished harvesting and putting everything in its place and now they lay on their backs on the bed tuckered out from the hard work.

"Phew. We did it Gaster. Now tomorrow we have to jar. I don't wanna hear any complaining either."

"BUT IT'S WHAT I DO BEST OBVIOUSLY. DON'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME." Vrinda giggles and baps Gaster's leg with her hand. Gaster grabs her hand and kisses it and the two look at each other. The emotions hit him all over again. God he loves this woman so much. He never would have guessed that he'd fall for a city girl, but here he is. The love of his life turns on her side and snuggles Gaster around the ribs. He turns as well and faces her and they hold hands.

"[[I love you, Gaster.]]" Vrinda says softly. Her soul thumps. She can still remember that beautiful night that the two finally became a couple. Floating in the sky looking at the stars. These have been the best four years of her whole life.

"[[I LOVE YOU TOO, VRINDA.]] Gaster's soul thumps as well. Their souls stream heavily with magic and the soothing flow of it all sends the two to sleep. The night is peaceful and still. Not a sound.

()

Hours later, the sun begins to peek through the East window of their room. Through the curtains, an orange bar of light lands across Gaster and Vrinda's shoulders.

Vrinda feels movement. It wakes her up a small bit, but she figures that it's just Gaster since he's the only one it could be. She tries to go back to sleep until she hears a noise that is NOT Gaster. Her eyes snap open and light up bright yellow. She looks down at the source and… She cannot believe her eyes.

"Gaster..." she whispers. But as usual her husband sleeps like a rock. Vrinda reaches over and puts her hand on his face and thumbs his cheek.

"Gaster wake up for heaven's sake." The source makes a noise and then starts crying quietly. Gaster's eyes shoot open now at the strange noise.

"WHAT THE HELL-" Gaster looks at Vrinda and then down-

Between the two is a small naked skeleton baby that begins crying his eyes out. His tiny white soul floats in his rib cage and his crying isn't more than a feeble mewl.

"A... A BABY?" Gaster says in shock. Vrinda nods quickly. The two understand immediately what's happened here.

The two sit up and stare down at the baby whose crying slows. He looks up at the adults…. and starts crying again. Vrinda and Gaster up look at each other. They're terrified to even touch such a fragile looking baby.

"H-he's gonna get cold. What do we do? We don't have clothes for a baby!" Vrinda says with growing panic. But Gaster gets off the bed and rushes to grab a sweater vest from their shared dresser.

"I GOT IT." He says and sits on the bed.

"Be careful... He's so small! Oh god he's so small. Is he going to be okay Gaster?" Vrinda grips her hands tightly together and watches him swaddle the baby up in the vest.

With the care of handling thin shelled eggs Gaster picks the boy up and into his arms. The two look at each other seriously.

"I... I THINK HE'LL BE OKAY. HIS HP IS ALRIGHT…" They both look at the baby who stops crying and just stares at the two of them.

"VRINDA, WE... WE MADE A BABY. WE MADE A BABY!"

Reality starts to sink in and the two start to chuckle slowly until it escalates to Vrinda crying with joy. She scoots closer and puts her hand on her son's small cheek. The baby looks at her expressionless but his magic is smooth. He's calm and seems to be happy.

"We made a baby… I can't believe this. We have a son Gaster! B-but I'm scared, I don't know how to take care of a baby! How do I feed him? I have ZERO experience with babies!"

"I MEAN NORMALLY I'D TELL YOU NOT TO WORRY, BUT… I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF BABIES EITHER. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO ASK FOR OUR PARENT'S HELP… HE REALLY IS TINY. GOD WHAT ARE WE GOING TO NAME HIM?..."

Vrinda wipes her tears and rubs the baby's skull as lightly and as carefully as she can.

"I think we should stick with names from our lineage. There are so many good ones. I want to use a name that hasn't been taken… Maybe… Hmm…" The baby reaches out with one tiny hand and waves it up and down. Is the baby actually BORED? Gaster laughs at the thought. Vrinda takes the baby's hand and looks close at his tiny TINY fingers.

"What do you think of Comic Sans Serif, Gaster?"

"HM… A BIT LONG. MAYBE JUST SANS?"

"Sans… I like it. Hello Sans, our sweet baby boy." Vrinda says with the biggest smile Gaster thinks he's ever seen on her face. He can't believe this is happening right now. It's so sudden and completely unplanned. The two hadn't even spoken of making a child before and now here they are completely unprepared.

"WELL THE SUN IS UP SO THAT MEANS MY PARENTS ARE AWAKE ALREADY. WE SHOULD GO TO THEM QUICKLY AND GET ANYTHING WE CAN."

"I agree. Then we'll go to my parents and see if we can get anything else…. As much as I hate asking for their help, I'll have to toss my pride. For our sweet baby."

Gaster and Vrinda get off the bed and take turns holding Sans as they each get dressed. Vrinda insists that Gaster hold Sans on the way to the now Grandparents' house because she's terrified she'll drop him or something. Gaster whines a little, also scared that he'll hurt the baby… But he sucks it up and convinces himself that he can TOTALLY do this. They carefully walk through their little village and spot some monsters already working and collecting some food from their gardens. The monsters see that they're holding a baby and gasp in delight.

"Have fun!" One monster calls. This monster in particular has 5 children, so…..

Eventually they get to Gaster's parents house and explain. His parents rush around the house frantically looking for anything they saved. Gaster's mother of course saved most of his things in a "hope chest" which includes baby dresses, bottles, shirts, pants and even some hats. Vrinda snerks at the cute little hats and imagens Gaster wearing them all. Gaster blushes a deep purple and can't believe his parents made him wear those. But if it's something that'll keep his own son warm then he AND Sans will just have to deal with the embarrassment. A diaper bag (obviously with no diapers since monsters don't uh… yeah) to put extra blankets in.

"We have more things that you can have as the baby grows, but for now we'll keep them." Gaster's mother says in her deep echoing voice. His dad on the other hand is holding back proud manly tears as he holds Gaster's very first swaddling blanket. He hands it to Gaster and does his absolute best to steady his voice.

"This here blanket worked on you like a charm. W-we *AHEM* we didn't even use magic on it to make it work better. So uh… *AHEM* I hope it works out for Sans."

Vrinda carefully takes the baby from Gaster and nudges him. The family wastes no time in hugging each other happily and shedding a few tears. A half hour of freaking out and crying and prideful tears later, Gaster and Vrinda leave to her parent's house. The two receive the same treatment there. They get much less in terms of Vrinda's baby things since after she grew out of them, her parents would donate it. But the mother did keep a blue flowery headband all these years and a pair of cream colored leather baby shoes.

The two go back home and change Sans into a baby dress. Vrinda worries about everything though.

"Oh Gaster I'm so scared, I have no idea how to do this! What if I mess up?"

Gaster quickly waves one hand side to side in the air and shakes his head.

"VRINDA IF YOU MESS UP THEN I'LL HAVE MESSED UP TEN TIMES MORE OKAY? WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP OUR COOL AND UH… GOOD GOD WE'RE GOING TO NEED MORE MONEY…" He puts a hand on the top of his skull and thinks hard about all of this… Until Sans begins to cry finally. The parents look down quickly at Sans with relief. He's been oddly quiet this whole time.

"Thank goodness. Uh let's see… He must be hungry! Okay I can do this. Uhhh… I'll make the bottle and you hold him." The two switch off and then Vrinda rushes to the kitchen to make the magic infused formula.

Gaster looks down at his son and is still doing his best to process this. How is this all going to work? Sans looks up at Gaster and cries some more, his blue magic flaring a little.

"ALRIGHT JUST SETTLE DOWN NOW, FOOD IS COMING. SHHH." Gaster bounces Sans around a tiny bit and uses his own magic to try and sooth his sons discomfort.

Gaster goes into the living room when he hears Vrinda calling him so she can feed him in there on their love seat. The two sit down and the baby is handed off again. Sans eats and seems very content afterwards. So content that he falls asleep.

The parents just stare at their son now in silence, taking in this new reality of theirs. Vrinda whispers as quietly as she can. Meekly even.

"Gaster?... Do you think…"

"I THINK YOU'LL BE A GREAT MOTHER. I'LL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU. AND JUST LIKE ALWAYS I'LL HELP YOU NO MATTER WHAT. SO PLEASE MY LOVE, DON'T WORRY SO MUCH."

Vrinda rests her skull on Gaster's shoulder and nods with a quiet sigh.

"You're right, as usual… I love him so much already Gaster. Our sweet baby boy, Sans."

"I LOVE HIM TOO. AND I LOVE YOU." Gaster leans over and kisses her head. The new family settles down and no yardwork at all is done that day. Or the next, or the next.

()

Vrinda and Gaster visit the city often now to get extra things for their growing boy. They didn't know how hard it really was to take care of a baby. Sans cries for seemingly no reason a lot of the time and his sleeping schedule is a horror that the parents almost can't handle. They take turns getting up and dealing with Sans. Sometimes there is no "dealing" with it and all they can do is listen to their screaming baby. It's absolutely migraine inducing…

But they watch their boy grow quickly. He learns to smile and hold up his own head once he's on his stomach. He learns to roll over and that becomes a completely other terror for the parents. They don't dare lay him on their bed anymore for fear that he'll roll off… Sans hates "tummy time" when they set him on his stomach. He cries and gets frustrated and his blue magic will flare, sending objects close to him scooting quickly away. But through Tummy Time, he learns to skootch himself forward and finally learns to crawl. Sans sits up on his own and starts responding to his name. One of the two will call to him to stay out of the cupboards and Sans will look at them. But of course he doesn't understand speech yet so he just goes right back to messing with the insides of the cupboards. Gaster buys some plastic baby proof cupboard straps to keep them locked while Sans is out and about.

Normally Peekaboo would be fun for babies. But Sans can't stand it. The "peekaboo!" part scares him and the new parents quickly give up on that game. Instead Sans likes the "get into everything you're not supposed to and almost get hurt because corners are EVERYWHERE in this freaking house" game. This drives Vrinda insane and the two have to use their magic more now if they're farther away from Sans and can't get close to him in time to save him or whatever he is preparing to destroy.

Sans starts pulling himself up on everything and looking at his parents with wonder in his eyes. He looks like he's saying "Did you see that?! I'm higher now than I was!" And each time Gaster and Vrinda will clap and say "Good job, Sans! You did it!"

Toys don't seem to interest him very much. They're boring! They're just beads sewn together to resemble a person and the baby dolls have weird faces that Sans will often use his magic on and turn them around. Gaster finds this interesting since Sans is still so young. How would he even know what's "creepy" yet? But he just takes this to mean that his son is already very smart.

Sans turns one year old. He has no idea what's going on with the cake and the candles, but he stuffs his hands into it and crams it all into his mouth. It makes a huge mess once he starts having fun smearing the cake and frosting all over himself and his high chair, but the parents don't mind at all. They expected such a reaction.

Vrinda finds a job in the city as a nurse! But she worries that Gaster might need some help with the baby… Their owl monster friend babysits for free and she absolutely loves baby Sans. Gaster finds a job in the city as a biologist and he makes QUITE a lot of money.

He is fired one year later due to high tensions caused by his mere presence. Gaster accepts that this is how humans are…. But he has to make money. He wants to make enough money that Vrinda can stop working so hard. He works several jobs, two or three at a time. A mathematician, a teacher, a chemical scientist and even a lowly factory worker making roller skates. Gaster is fired from every single one after a few months at each.

Because he is a monster.

And yet he saves up enough money from each job to support the family for a good while. Vrinda feels terrible that her beloved husband is being judged and fired just because he's a monster.

"Gaster why don't you ever say something to them? Don't just let them get away with treating you like that! Those roller skate jerks are lucky I wasn't there!" Vrinda says on the afternoon of the firing. Gaster just shrugs and leans back on the love seat with a small sigh.

"I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE VRINDA. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS THAT I GOT PAID. I CAN'T RISK SAYING SOMETHING AND HAVE THEM FIRE ME SOONER RATHER THAN LATER. I… I'M SO SORRY I CAN'T HELP YOU MORE MY LOVE…"

Vrinda snaps her head to look at Gaster in absolute shock, eyes wide. She's quiet for a few minutes and then begins to cry softly into her hands. Gaster looks at her quickly, confused.

"Gaster honey you make more money than I EVER could. I'm the one that wishes she could help YOU more… You selfless jerk." Gaster laughs a little and just takes her hands away from her face and holds them, adjusting his seating position on the couch so that he faces her.

"YOU KNOW, I HAVE AN IDEA. SOMETHING TO TAKE OUR MINDS OFF OF THIS STUPID MONEY SITUATION. WHY DON'T WE PAINT THE HOUSE? SANS CAN EVEN HAVE HIS OWN LITTLE HAND PRINT SOMEWHERE. MAYBE WE COULD MAKE A FLOWER BED IN THE FRONT WHEN WE'RE DONE. I THINK SANS WILL ENJOY DIGGING IN THE DIRT TOO."

Vrinda sniffs and looks up at him with a small smile. Selfless jerk all the way. Gaster is always on it when she's upset. A lot of the time she still wants to stay mad just to get it out of her system. But one look at her husband's face completely brings her out of it. A few seconds of thought later and she nods.

"Yeah. That sounds fun… Although having to clean Sans up after the painting sounds like a nightmare. But a nightmare I'm 100% willing to put up with."

A few days later the two buy some paint and some brushes. The cashier overcharges them.

In the morning, two year old Sans wakes up before his parents and yells unintelligible sounds until one of them get up. Vrinda opens her eyes slowly and looks at Gaster who is still sound asleep. He's been working extra hard lately running around the city looking for any work he can AND taking all of the shifts to care for Sans in the night. She doesn't know how he does it… He wakes up at 5:30 and runs 10 miles to the city, hands in resumes and searches the city for jobs that are hiring. He'll find other monsters and ask if they know any place that might take him, but no one can help him. They're having a hard time themselves finding proper work because of the humans. He spends 9 hours searching and trying and being treated worse and worse every day. It makes Vrinda so angry that her husband has to SO very hard to make the money he does and he STILL gets fired JUST because he's a monster in a human world…

Sans yells louder and Vrinda decides she'll take Gaster's shift and gets up. He doesn't even stir he's so tired. Vrinda honestly hopes he's able to sleep for the entire day.

Once Vrinda makes it to Sans, she picks him up and kisses his head a bunch.

"Good morning my loud little skell. You and I have to be quiet for now because daddy is sleeping alright? But you know what we're going to do? We're going to make a pie to show your daddy how much we appreciate his hard work. How does that sound sweet pea?" Vrinda says with a growing smile. Sans claps and leans on Vrinda tiredly. "Of course" she thinks. "He'll scream and yell because he's awake and then he'll just lean on you because he's tired. Kids are weird."

Vrinda settles Sans at the table with some paper, crayons and porridge for breakfast and goes to work on making a pie. She makes Gaster's favorite. Strawberry rhubarb. A half hour later when the pie is done, the smell wakes the tired dad all the way in the bedroom.

Gaster opens his eyes slowly and then rubs them with his hand. He sighs a little still feeling exhausted… but when he notices Vrinda is out of bed before him, it hits him that his wife is awake and she's making something. He sits up and realizes that he's sore. That's new. He makes his way into the kitchen and then leans on the door frame and watches with a tired smile. Vrinda doesn't even notice he's there for a stretch of seconds. She spots his black clothes though and jumps.

"Oh! Good morning Sweet heart, did I wake you up?"

"YEAH. BUT IT'S PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST WAYS' I'VE WOKEN UP. MAKING SOMETHING?"

"Yes, I thought I'd… make us something. You're working so hard and I couldn't just lay in bed and make you get Sans when you were so tired. I had to do something for you even if it's just a pie."

Vrinda puts the tin next to an open window and takes off her tan floral oven mits. Gaster goes to Sans first and kisses him on the top of his skull, and then goes over to his wife and hugs and kisses her.

"AW VRINDA, I TOLD YOU, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT… BUT I APPRECIATE YOU THINKING ABOUT ME."

"I always think about you, Wingdings. You and Sans are the only things that go through this skull of mine." The two smooch and hold each other loosely. Gaster rests his head on top of his shorter wife's and closes his eyes. Vrinda can tell he's still trying to wake up. It's so adorable.

"Do you think you'll be up to painting the house? It's going to be a big job you know."

"I /AM/ THE ONE THAT SUGGESTED IT AFTER ALL. I THINK WE'LL GET IT DONE RATHER QUICKLY. HOPEFULLY WE DON'T GET A DUST STORM OR SOMETHING."

The two laugh nervously at the thought.

Gaster and Vrinda take Sans and his drawings outside so they can keep an eye on him while they paint. Vrinda puts on a record and positions the gramophone by the window so they can have something to listen to. It's a record of swing music. It was pretty expensive, but it was so worth it.

The brushes are dipped and they begin to paint their little house. Vrinda hums and sways with the music for a half hour. Gaster can't stop stealing peeks in her direction. Her little jigs are so cute.

A few years ago the two would go to swing dancing parties and even competitions. Gaster was HORRIBLE at it, but Vrinda taught him and never gave up. In the end Gaster was a pretty darn good dancer.

The excitement of swing music gives him an idea that he can't resist. He only hopes Vrinda won't get mad at him. Gaster dips his brush in the paint bucket just a tiny bit and flicks it at her. Vrinda gasps at the action and she looks at Gaster surprised. But when she sees his smirk, it's absolutely game on. She flicks a bit of her own paint at him. And on black clothing, that paint shows up very clearly. The battle has begun.

More and more paint is flicked until the two are standing right next to each other straight up brushing the other's face and clothes. They shout and laugh the whole time and they are just a mess. Sans watches a bit confused, but the smiles are enough to tell him that everything's alright. He laughs at them and when some paint drops get on his paper, he dips his fingers in it and paints his own face.

Gaster wraps his arm around the back of Vrinda's waist and brings her in for a big kiss. Vrinda laughs in the kiss and returns it. Then she immediately puts a nice long paint stroke right down the left side of his face. They giggle and kiss some more.

"WE ARE NEVER GOING TO GET THIS HOUSE DONE ARE WE?" Gaster asks while laughing. Vrinda shakes her head.

"Doesn't look like it. But we've got a few days."

The two finally stand back a bit, taking in the sight of each other completely covered in paint. It's absolutely the biggest mess ever. Bigger than the messes Sans makes on his birthdays.

"YOU GOT ME RIGHT IN THE EYE! JUST, MY WHOLE EYE." Vrinda laughs at Gaster, the perfect thick line on the side of his face making him look like a Picasso painting.

"Well you started it mister! And by golly I was going to finish it."

"SO YOU HAVE! YOU WIN, I GIVE UP."

"Hoo-rah!" Vrinda holds up her arms and pretends to flex her non-existent muscles.

()

A few days (and a few more paint fights and swing dancing sessions) go by and finally the two have completely painted their house. It's not perfect, but the parents agree that this is exactly what gives it that special charm.

Sans gets paint on himself as well after he dipped both of his hands entirely in paint and chased his mommy and daddy around. Each parent has tiny hand prints on their pant legs and dress hems. Neither one is sure they want to wash the paint out anymore.

Three months pass.

Tensions grow even more with the humans and eventually Vrinda loses her job as well. It's stressful, but Gaster and Sans are always there to make her feel about their situation. Which really isn't that bad. Gaster saved nearly every dime he made and that is what they're now all living on.

The humans have begun to corral the monsters tighter and closer together and some monsters are beginning to show irritation and are being vocal about it. But nothing happens.

Until one day…


	4. The beginning of War

194X

In a city very far away, a human child and a monster child are arguing outside of the school they go to. The human kid is bullying the monster kid. It's become physical lately… The human will poke and prod and slap and kick the monster child and laugh at them for being weak. They say that they could kill the monster if they "weren't careful."

On this day, the human finally takes it too far. The two get into a physical fight and even begin to wrestle violently. But finally the monster has to use their magic to get the human away from them. The human is frightened for a few moments... A monster has never used their magic on the human. The human tries going for the monster again, determined to get a bigger reaction. And they get it.

The monster sends a wave of their magic at the human and knocks them over onto the ground. The human receives several scrapes. From the parking lot of the school, the child's parents rush over and accuse the monster of starting the fight. The Monsters parents show up just in time to see the end of the altercation and refuse to apologize. Their child wouldn't use magic unless it was in self-defense! The OTHER child must have been the one to start this fight!

Each side glares at each other until finally they manage to part ways and return home. But the human parents tell everyone in their neighborhood about this fight… And the humans decide that this is enough. They begin to gather weapons to defend themselves with. Some go further and get weapons to ATTACK with.

The human child and the monster child run into each other on the street of their neighborhood. The human has convinced themselves that they were attacked by this monster and now they will take revenge. The Monster's magic flares up and they defend themselves carefully. But when the child makes a final lunge at the monster, the magic blows out of control.

The human child is dead. They lay still on the ground and the monster feels the pit of their stomach sinking. No… No this wasn't supposed to happen! It was an accident! If that human had just stayed away! The Monster runs over and gets on their hands and knees and yells at the human to wake up. The human's colored soul comes out of their body.

Some humans heard the commotion and have begun to pop their heads out of their doors and windows.

The monster isn't sure what to do… Put the soul back in? They put their hands in position to push, and when they do, a bright light completely whites everything out.

When the light fades, the human's soul and the monster's soul have combined… They have fused and made a new more powerful monster. The humans watching gasp and panic. This monster has killed a human and has STOLEN THEIR SOUL.

The humans take up arms and rush outside to kill the beast. The monster looks at their hands terrified. The human's thoughts and their own have become jumbled and confusing. The uncontrollable magic is more powerful, but completely unstable now. Humans rush the monster and begin to shoot them and hit them with things.

The godlike monster never attacks. They have no idea what's going on. But everything hurts. They're so scared. THEY'RE SO SCARED. Why is this happening? Why why why?!

The monster tries to escape, but they become cornered. The humans show them no mercy. They attack them until their body begins to turn to dust. Tears roll down their face as they sob and scream in pain and die slowly, begging for their life… Finally, a pile of dust remains. The white monster soul shatters and the humans scream and shout in victory. It wasn't hard to kill the beast at all.

They cannot allow this to happen again. The humans start kicking down the monsters' doors to their homes and start dusting them one at a time. Guns, knives, bats, crowbars, anything at all that can be used as a weapon, is.

The monster homes begin to wake up hearing the noise and realize what's going on. This is war. The humans have started a war! They're attacking in the middle of the night while they're vulnerable! And so the monsters rush out of their homes and begin to fight back with their magic.

It's a complete and utter slaughter of both sides. Almost neither species is left in the neighborhood. The incident isn't covered on the news. The humans are keeping it a secret… and whatever monsters are left are taken in and killed with their hands, claws and wings tied behind their hands.

()

Gaster hums a dandy little tune while he washes dishes in the kitchen sink. Sans is pulling at his pant leg with boredom and groooaaannnsss.

"GOODNESS SANS, I CAN'T QUITE TELL, ARE YOU BORED OR SOMETHING?" Gaster says with a laugh and looks down at his knee high son. Vrinda comes in from the laundry room and puts away a few towels and drapes one over Gaster's shoulder. She picks Sans up and gives him a small toss into the air.

"Did I hear that my baby was bored? Unacceptable Gaster! Come on, let's all go outside and play. You can finish those dishes later." Vrinda snuggles Sans and gives Gaster a happy smile.

"I'LL SAY. HOW DID WE MANAGE TO LET THE DISHES PILE UP SO MUCH? IF I SEE ANOTHER WHITE DISH I THINK I MAY ACTUALLY GO INSANE." He chuckles and walks outside with his wife and son.

The family plays many games. Tag, catch, and tic-tac-toe in the dirt. They also use their magic to toss Sans back and forward between the two of them. Sans laughs and screams, absolutely having the best time flying in the air. Purple and yellow magic take turns embracing him.

It's a very nice day out. Spring has just sprung and it's nice to finally get to play outside without all that snow getting their clothes wet. The flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping. On days like these, EVERYONE should be outside enjoying the sun.

"Hm?" Vrinda looks past Gaster's shoulder towards the west. In their small little farm town, a plume of smoke is beginning to rise.

"Gaster? What is that? Is someone actually using their fire place in this beautiful weather?" Vrinda wraps Sans in her yellow magic and brings him down into her arms, then walks up to Gaster who turns around to look. The smoke is white and slowly turning gray. But he notices that there's another plume of smoke of similar colors coming up from somewhere next to it. There's NO WAY someone is using their fire place at this time of year. The placement of the smoke plumes is beginning to worry Gaster. He squints and puts his hand over his eyes to try and gauge where the smoke is coming from exactly.

"HUH. IT SURE LOOKS LIKE A FIRE… BUT UH… UH…" His voice slows from curiosity, to worry. The smoke starts to turn black. It starts to get bigger. Something… something is….

"MY PARENTS' HOUSE IS ABOUT THERE… I'M GOING TO GO CHECK IT OUT AND SEE IF A FIRE HAS STARTED IN THE KITCHEN. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK." Gaster gives Vrinda a kiss and rushes off. Vrinda watches with growing fear. A fire? Even with the old ovens and fire pits in this town there has NEVER been a fire. The smoke is growing huge now and its turning completely black.

"Oh no… that's a huge fire. I want to help… Oh darn it, I can't leave you at home baby. I hope everything is okay." Vrinda decides to go in the house and watch from the window. Something is wrong. She can feel it in her bones… Something is absolutely not right. And Gaster has run right towards the bad feeling.

Gaster runs quickly to the source of the smoke. As he gets closer, he can see houses from further down the street with their doors open. But there are no sounds. A few of them have begun to catch fire as well. What the hell is going on? What started this fire? Why are so many doors open? Did they come over here too, to stop the growing inferno?

He gets up to his parents' house which is already completely aflame.

"OH MY GOD… MOTHER! FATHER!" Gaster rushes to the door and finds it open. No. This is wrong. Something is not right!

Gaster enters the home and yells for his parents. He has to get out soon or he'll be caught… He rushes to their bedroom where he sees—…

Two piles of dust. One in bed and the other spilling over his father's rocking chair.

He thinks he may pass out. His parents are dead… They wouldn't have died in bed and on the chair though. Not from this fire. Someone… Oh god someone must have-...

"NO… NO NO NO! NOOO NO NO NO THIS…" He grits his teeth and both of his eyes glow a bright purple. Who has done this? Who would have DARED do this?

All those other doors were open. That means all of THOSE monsters are dead too. No this CAN'T BE! PLEASE be imagining things, PLEASE BE IMAGINING THINGS.

Wood beams begin to crack and crash down around the small home. He has to get out… God he has to leave his mother's dust! His father's dust! Gaster can't even give them a proper burial…

Gaster rushes out of the back door of the home to see if he can find the culprit. They couldn't have gotten far in this small town. But what he finds is horrifying. A huge group of humans are burning the crops and killing several monsters. Gunshots begin to pierce the sound of the roaring fire.

The humans have one of Gaster's childhood friends in their grasp. His friend begs for his life, but they ignore him and stab him directly in the chest. He gasps and begins to choke on liquid before he goes limp and turns to dust. It happens in the blink of an eye. Some monsters begin to fight back harder than before and actually start shedding human blood.

Across the way, the owl monster, another of Gaster's friends is being yanked by her wings. She screeches and struggles hard to escape. Gaster can't watch another friend be killed again. He WON'T watch again. He throws his hand out and his magic grabs three humans and throws them aside into another group of humans. He rushes over and helps the owl up.

"Gaster! Oh th-thank you! They're killing all of us! M-My mom and dad! O-oohhhh!" She sobs and screams. Gaster shakes his head quickly, unable to understand. He can't believe this…

"WHEN THE HELL DID THIS START, DO YOU KNOW?!"

"Just a while ago! A g-group from our town saw the h-humans coming at us from the west! They just came in and killed them! O-only a couple got away to try and warn some of us, but they were killed too! Oh Gaster! Gaster what are we going to do!?" She screams and sobs.

Gaster's eyes glow brighter and he swings his head to look at the humans and monsters fighting. He stands straight after yanking his owl friend to her feet.

"WE FIGHT BACK. DON'T LET THEM KILL US! FIGHT THEM!" He screams, hoping others will hear him over the angry rolling grumble and snapping of the blaze that has taken over a chunk of their town.

"THEY WON'T SHOW US ANY MERCY, SO DON'T SHOW ANY BACK!"

"Gaster, where's Vrinda and Sans? You can't stay here! You have to tell everyone ahead of us to run!" The owl grabs Gaster's arms and stands in front of him. She's shaking violently, terrified. He knows she's right but…

"I'M…. DAMMIT ALL! YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME. I CAN'T TELL EVERYONE ON MY OWN. HURRY! THIS WAY!" He grabs her talon and runs away as fast as he can. His heart is heavy, having no choice but to leave the others to fend for themselves. He feels HORRIBLE… He can't save them… He couldn't save his friends or his parents! God, Vrinda's parents may be dead too. Oh god, oh god, oh god!

The two finally get to houses that haven't been dusted and they rush up to each door and scream as loudly as they can to evacuate. They go to every house, and then the people who leave their homes rush to other houses to warn them as well. It's a domino effect of help. Enough monsters are warning other monsters that Gaster knows he has to get to his wife and son. He looks through the crowd and makes eye contact with his friend. She nods and Gaster runs as fast as he can towards his home.

As he runs, a human steps out from behind a house and slams Gaster in the right side of his face with a shovel. A disgusting THUNK CRACK reverberates in his head and he can feel his HP go down. Gaster crashes into the dusty ground and grabs his eye. A ringing sounds echoes all around his skull until he can't hear anything more than muffled laughter. He can feel the small crack he already had split so far up his skull that it begins to reach the back. When he opens his eyes, he can't really see out of his right eye… It's blurry.

Another shovel swing to his chest this time almost knocks the wind out of him. Once he looks up, he gets a half clear half blurry view of some 20 year old with a short pointed shovel. He uses his magic to rip the shovel out of the kids' hands and hits his legs with it, breaking one of them. The human screams in agony and goes down. Gaster stands up on wobbly legs and looks forward, still dizzy and still with ringing ears. He runs forward though. He HAS to get to Vrinda and Sans!

Once he gets to his house, the door is still closed. Thank god!

From inside the house Vrinda is in shock at how big the smoke has gotten. She's been watching several monsters run around to each home and everyone trying to evacuate. This is it. Something truly is wrong. SO wrong that they have to LEAVE. But she has to wait for Gaster. She won't leave without him… Sans can hear the screaming and the panicked yelling outside and starts to whimper, grabbing at his mommas dress.

"It's okay Sans, Mommy's got you." She bends down and picks him up. Once she looks outside the window again she sees Gaster running up to the house… Oh god in heaven he's hurt… No! This is an attack. She knew it! SHE KNEW IT! But God no, not her husband! She runs to the door and opens it before Gaster can. The two crash into a big hug, Sans almost smushed in the middle.

"Gaster oh my god what's happening?! Are we being attacked?!"

"Y-YES. THERE ARE TONS OF HUMANS AND TH-THEY'RE KILLING EVERYONE. WE /HAVE/ TO LEAVE! MY FRIEND SAID THIS STARTED NOT TOO LONG AGO. THEY JUST WALKED IN AND STARTED BUSTING IN TO HOUSES AND KILLING THEM! G-GOD MY P-MY PARENTS… THEY WERE IN BED FOR GOD'S SAKE…" Gaster puts a hand to his face, half in pain from the shovel and half because he's trying to hide his pained expression.

Vrinda slowly shakes her head, her eyes wide with terror and disbelief. If Gaster's parents were killed, then so were hers. Their houses weren't far from each other…

"No way… I'm so sorry Gaster… What happened to you—oh—OH! Your face! N-No they got you!" Vrinda reaches out to Gaster, but she's unable to touch the giant crack tearing up her husband's face.

Sans begins to cry hard, not understanding why everyone's yelling, why his parents are scared and talking in that tone, and why his daddy is hurt.

"OH NO NO, DON'T CRY SANS, IT'S ALRIGHT. WE'RE LEAVING. WE'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. MY FRIEND AND I STARTED TO TELL EVERYONE TO LEAVE AND THEN THOSE MOSNTERS STARTED TELLING OTHERS TO LEAVE TOO. THE HUMANS GOT A HEAD START, BUT WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT OUT. COME ON, GET THE IMPORTANT STUFF AND THEN WE HAVE TO RUN AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE."

Vrinda's eyes begin to fill with tears. Gaster takes Sans from her and holds him close while Vrinda runs around frantically trying to get anything she can together. It has to be light she imagines. She cries the whole time.

Sans reaches up and touches his fathers cracked face. When Gaster winces at the pain, Sans takes his hand away and leans on his daddy's shoulder and cries. He's so scared. All Gaster can do is hold him close and quietly shush him. The pain in his face is almost unbearable. Gaster swears he can feel every single movement shaking the crack further and further open.

The back door is kicked in. Gaster hears Vrinda scream and his left eye glows. Only his left eye. He rushes in and a rather large man has grabbed Vrinda by her arm and is yanking her outside violently. Gaster can hear Vrinda's bones grinding together.

"Get off of me!" Vrinda screams. She uses her yellow magic and pries her arm free and throws the behemoth far out of her way. She loses her footing and slips onto her side in what sounds like a painful series of thuds.

"VRINDA!" Gaster runs over to her and Vrinda scrambles to her feet and crashes into his chest trying to run to him. The giant man stands up and holds up his large axe.

Gaster has had. ENOUGH. His eye begins to leave a trail of magic as he hands Sans to Vrinda and walks outside.

"Gaster no, get away from him!" Vrinda screams after him in a shaky voice. He gets near the human and raises his hands a little bit, both completely flaming with magic.

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF MEAT! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY FAMILY! MY HOME! MY TOWN AND MY FRIENDS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Gaster shouts. The human points his axe at him.

"You freaks started it! One of you creatures killed a human and then you took the kids soul! HIS SOUL YOU BASTARD! It turned into an even bigger demon! And we ain't gonna let things like you exist anymore if that's the kinda shit you can do!"

Gaster is shocked for a second. A monster actually took a humans soul? On purpose? He wishes he knew more. But right now he's too mad to think very straight. All he can feel right now is ANGER. And he wants revenge.

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT. THAT DOES NOT REFLECT ALL MONSTERS YOU MORON! BUT NOW YOU'VE CROSSED THE LINE. YOU'VE KILLED INNOCENT MONSTERS WHO'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU! AND NOW YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT WITH YOUR LIFE!" The glowing socket of his left eye becomes completely purple and his magic nearly takes over his entire body. The human is confident though that he'll be safe. He charges Gaster and swings his axe. Gaster swiftly jumps out of the way and materializes a giant version of his own fist and he smashes the human down into the ground. The hand grabs the human's legs from under him and then Gaster smashes him in the ground several times until he's nice and bloody and broken. Once the human is unconscious, he throws the human as far away as his magic will allow. He figures the fall may kill him.

Gaster's magic dies down. A sharp pain jabs his right eye and his hand flies up to it.

"DAMMIT ALL… MY DAMN EYE…" He grunts and leans over in pain. GOD that hurt! Vrinda runs over to him with the old baby bag full of anything she could grab. She puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Gaster? Gaster sweet heart say something! Or move! Come on, we have to go. They're catching up to us, we'll never make it if we wait! God I'm so sorry you're in pain Wingdings—"

"IT'S FINE. YOU'RE RIGHT, LET'S GO. ARE YOU OKAY?" Gaster stands up as straight as he can and keeping his right eye closed, he grabs Vrinda's hand and starts to run.

"I'm fine. Thank you Gaster…" Vrinda holds Sans tightly and runs with him. Sans wraps his arms around his mom's neck and looks at his house as it starts to get smaller and disappear… He doesn't stop looking until the house and garden and town are just a small little speck that's caught on fire… He watches hundreds of monsters escape the town like ants from an ant hill. They run and scatter and scream. It's a nightmare. It's hell.

It's war.

()

Days later, Gaster, Vrinda and Sans make it into the mountains with apparently most of the members of their town. Several other towns and cities full of monsters had the same idea. Into the mountains. Get higher ground so when the humans attack again they can have a vantage point.

The family finally settles down and are relieved when some of the monsters begin to make a small temporary settlement. Some infirmary stations, food stations and family meet up stations are being put up all around.

Vrinda sets Gaster and Sans down on one of the benches of an infirmary and lightly takes her husband's face in her hands to get a good look at his eye and face.

"Oh sweet heart… Oh my sweet Gaster… They took your eye…" She holds back tears at what seems to be a grim diagnosis. One that Gaster didn't need.

"W-what can you see?" She says with a shaky voice. Gaster speaks quietly and evenly.

"MY LEFT EYE IS PERFECTLY FINE. MY RIGHT EYE IS... DIFFICULT TO SEE OUT OF. IT'S SO BLURRY I DIDN'T BOTHER USING IT ON THE WAY UP HERE… IT DIDN'T MESS UP MY MAGIC THOUGH. SO UH… REALLY I'M FINE."

"Don't you dare lie to me Wingdings Gaster you are NOT fine…" Vrinda scolds. "Your poor head has a… a huge crack in it. It cracked your skull!" Vrinda begins to sob as she holds Gaster's face and just takes in the sight. She just watched him leave to help with the fire and BAM she almost lost him. Just like that!

Gaster takes her hands and holds them close to his chest. He can barely raise his voice. Everyone is so tired from running, so hungry from not eating, so weak from no sleep… Gaster's no different.

"VRINDA PLEASE… PLEASE DON'T CRY. I'M ALIVE. YOU AND SANS ARE ALIVE AND WE'RE ALL TOGETHER. I'D TAKE ANOTHER SHOVEL TO THE FACE IF IT MEANT WE'D BE ALIVE AND SAFE TOGETHER. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T CRY MY LOVE."

Sans watches his parents slowly begin to fall apart… He tears up and scoots closer to his dad and hugs him around the waist. He doesn't know what's going on or what to do. He just knows that he wants his mommy and daddy. Gaster looks down at his son and brings him onto his lap in one swift movement.

"THERE'S MY BIG STRONG BOY, RIGHT? LOOK AT THAT, ISN'T THAT BIRD OVER THERE PRETTY?" Gaster takes one hand and points off up into a tree. A vibrant blue bird sits perched with a couple other birds of the same color. The birds snuggle together and peep.

"Pretty…" Sans echoes sadly. They are pretty but they don't make him feel better… They still manage to distract the toddler. Vrinda sniffs and looks up at her husband who is still managing to smile for his family when everything has gone so wrong. His eye doesn't work now for heaven's sake! His parents were murdered and he actually saw their dust! He watched a friend get killed and then lost the owl friend he helped escape. Vrinda stayed home and was protected… Why the HELL is Gaster smiling?! She lets out several quiet sobs and holds Gaster's other hand tightly in both of hers.

He's right though. They're all alive and together. It really could be worse, oddly enough. Gaster could have actually died. SHE could have died. Sans might have been alone… Vrinda tries to count her blessings. She wipes her tears and stands up taking a second to adjust her red scarf just so her hands have something to do. Her parents red scarf… A monster runs up to her. It's a monster that she worked with at the hospital before she was fired.

"Vrinda! I'm so glad you and your family are okay! Would it be terrible if I asked for your help?" They ask. Vrinda looks over at them and is happy to see them again. She looks at Gaster, curious about his reaction. But Gaster looks up at her and nods. Still smiling, damn him.

"GO. USE ALL THAT COOL STUFF YOU LEARNED TO HELP SOMEONE. AND THEN TEACH ME SOME OF THAT COOL STUFF. I WANT TO HELP TOO."

Vrinda gulps… and nods. HE wants to help?... Selfless jerk.

"I will. Sans, sweetie, mommy has to help some people. Are you going to be okay with daddy?" Vrinda asks and bends down to eye level for Sans. The toddler nods and gets a kiss on the forehead.

"Alright, Mommy will be back soon. I love you, baby. And I love you, Gaster."

"I LOVE YOU TOO, VRINDA." The two have a small moment to look into each other's eyes before giving each other a kiss.

The nurse and Vrinda both rush off quickly, leaving the boys alone.

Gaster sits silently with Sans in his lap for a long while. He stares off into space, not thinking. It isn't until Sans sighs with obvious boredom that Gaster is taken out of his trip to lala land.

"GOODNESS. DID I DOZE OFF SANS? I'M SORRY…" He rubs the top of his son's skull and sighs a little. His poor boy… Just a babe and already he's lost his home. Everything he's ever known is gone now… Gaster wonders if children Sans' age can even think that deeply. Can they truly understand the magnitude of this?... No… At least not entirely. He knows something's wrong. It's obvious… Gaster can't stand these thoughts suddenly rapid firing in his head. He feels like he has to distract Sans and show him that there are good things in the world away from humans that he can like.

"SANS, DO YOU WANT TO GO PLAY?" Gaster says with a tired smile. Sans looks up at his daddy and then back down… He nods.

"Yeh." It's the only word Sans has said this entire time. It's a start.

Gaster stands up and walks off, nodding at some of the monsters as they pass. The other monsters are just happy to see that the only child from their town made it out.

The two explore nearly the entire area. They spot plants and flowers and even some possible sources of food. Mostly animals… But there sure are a lot of berries! Gaster makes sure to note every plant and every tree around them. Some are better for animal traps than others. Some are better for lookout posts if they end up using such a thing. He notes paths and shortcuts and hidden spots that could be useful…. Gaster doubts they'll stay in this place long enough to use much of these things… Maybe another week if they're lucky.

After several hours of note taking and Sans playing with everything, exploring and jumping in a river they find, the two return to camp. It's night time now and nearly everyone is stargazing. They've been too busy looking at the ground they're running on and each other to make headcounts. Gaster gets to a spot near the infirmary station Vrinda left the boys at and lays down. He lays his tired boy on his stomach and Sans fall asleep immediately. He played pretty hard in a new environment after all. Eventually Gaster himself falls asleep, one arm behind his head and the other draped over Sans' back.

Gaster isn't sure what time it is when he's awoken by someone shaking him. He opens his eyes as much as he's able in his stupor… which isn't much. Vrinda is hovering over him, sitting on her legs with… a big smile on her face.

"VRINDA?... WELCOME BACK, BEAUTIFUL WIFE OF MINE. YOU SEEM HAPPY." Gaster can't stop a small exhausted smile from creeping up on his face. Vrinda giggles quietly and tickles his face with her red scarf playfully. She whispers.

"I am very happy. I learned a lot of useful things today…. I learned more than I EVER could have at the hospital. Being on the field gave me so much more. It was scary, but I'm glad I went." She touches the right side of Gaster's face, thumbing his cheek as lightly as she can. She knows it hurts…

"GOOD. I HOPE YOU'LL BE TEACHING ME ALL THIS COOL STUFF. I KNOW A DECENT AMOUNT… BUT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO HELP YOU SO YOU AREN'T DOING EVERYTHING ALONE…" Gaster is quiet for a second. He sighs.

"I GUESS THAT'S SELFISH OF ME… I KNOW YOU AREN'T ALONE, BUT…"

Vrinda smiles wider and nods.

"I know honey. You want to be with me. And you're so sweet because of it. I want you to be with me too… We really are just like back then huh? After we started dating it was pretty much impossible for the two of us to be apart. I remember how much it hurt, and how often I cried when you weren't there with me." Her sockets begin to tear up a little just remembering it all. Gaster reaches up and thumbs her cheek back.

"DID YOU REALLY CRY THAT MUCH?"

"Of course I did. I'm a sensitive soul Gaster, and being apart from that other half of me is so… empty. Like a void… I'm so lucky to have you and Sans."

The two stare at each other for several long moments, just being so in love… Vrinda finally is able to snap herself out of it when she remembers the reason she was so excited.

"That's right. Gaster sweet heart, hold still for me okay?"

"OH? ALRIGHT. I WASN'T PLANNING ON MOVING ANY TIME SOON." Gaster chuckles.

Vrinda moves her hand from her husband's cheek and moves it up to the giant split going up his skull from his eye. Her yellow magic covers her hand and she focuses quietly. Gaster wonders what she's doing exactly… But he feels a tingling where the crack is and can't put his finger on what exactly is happening… Vrinda's magic disappears and then she thumbs the crack. She managed to close it nearly all the way. It's still a long crack, but it's closed significantly.

"There. I learned to heal bones. Something I honestly should have learned years ago. But tonight… it seems it was fate that I learned it at this time. It's not all gone, but it's better. Do you feel anything?" Vrinda says with a smile. Gaster reaches up and feels the spot. It doesn't hurt nearly as much. The area of pain is much smaller, and the small part mostly feels like he ran into a wall while walking rather than having been literally hit in the face with a metal shovel.

"WOW. THAT IS SOME EXTREMELY HELPFUL MAGIC. I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. IT HARDLY HURTS AT ALL NOW." Gaster is actually pretty amazed…. God he loves his wife so much. He smiles widely at her and takes her hand, kissing her knuckles.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH MY LOVE."

Vrinda can't stop tears from coming up again. She leans down and kisses Gaster's head.

"I'm so happy I could help you." It's a huge weight that's been lifted off of her shoulders. When Gaster is in pain, she is in pain. It hurts her to see her love in such constant agony. So now that he feels better and she got the best smile she's seen in three days out of him, SHE feels better. Confident. Confident in herself as a wife, a healer, and she's surer of her magic than she was before.

Vrinda lays next to Gaster and pets her son's head. The two talk for a while longer in quiet whispers about what they all did that day, and finally the parents fall asleep under the stars.

A week goes by very slowly for everyone. Even if it is summer, the nights are still cold for many monsters, even ones without skin and flesh. Vrinda starts teaching Gaster everything she knows about healing monsters and even humans. Gaster listens to every word she says. But half of his brain makes different kinds of notes… Like how he can kill a human quickly, quietly and without using much energy or magic. He doesn't tell Vrinda this of course, but he never stops making those small notes in his head. When Vrinda is not at their section of the camp, Gaster takes up the healing role for monsters who still may be hurt. It's been ten days and there are a lot of monsters…. He gets through most of them, but it's tiring. Gaster had no idea how much magic it took to heal this many monsters.

On the seventh day, the family is walking from their section of camp to the edge of the settlement so they can have some personal family time. It's nice. Sans plays with Vrinda a whole lot while Gaster watches, occasionally getting a Sans crashing into his chest in a toddler hug.

Gaster throws Sans in the air once and catches him, jiggling him side to side in his hands. Sans laughs. But behind the laugh is another sound. Coming from somewhere else. Someone else. Gaster brings Sans down and looks over to where he heard the noise. Down the mountain nearly at its base is… The Owl monster!

"Ho there!" She yells up at the family. Gaster and Vrinda gasp and hug their friend tightly when she makes it up to them.

"I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE OKAY! I DIDN'T SEE YOU AND I WAS SCARED THAT YOU'D BEEN DUSTED!"

"I was so worried about you! Gaster told me what happened!" Vrinda says once she leans back to take a good look at her friend.

"I'm sorry I worried you both. I was pretty busy… Ah, little one!" The owl says, picking Sans up in her claws. She snuggles him up in her brown feathers and makes a delighted purring noise. Sans laughs at the ticklish feathers, but snuggles her back.

"Goodness, in just the ten days I've been separated you've already grown a little bit! Ah, anyway, I'm sorry you two. This reunion is just the bees' knees, but I don't return to you with very good news."

Gaster and Vrinda give each other a small worried look.

"ARE YOU ABLE TO SIT AND TALK WITH US ABOUT IT?" Gaster says, motioning for them to sit on the pushed down grass. The owl hoots a tired sigh and nods.

"I'd like nothing more. I've been flying and walking for so long now. A sit down would be very nice." The family and the owl sit down and they can tell that their friend has been working very hard.

"I'M JUST GLAD YOU'RE SAFE TO BE HONEST, FRIEND. I'M SORRY I WASN'T THERE…"

"I'm sorry as well, Civetta. I wasn't able to help at all during the attack." Vrinda says. Civetta. It isn't often they call her by name, since she hates it so much.

"Oh don't worry at all you two. Thank you for your concern. I ended up being… alright. I wasn't physically hurt after that attack, and while I've been away I was able to cope with my own loses. My brothers and sisters were all dusted. My parents too."

"I'M SO SORRY… WE BOTH LOST OUR PARENTS TOO… SO WE CAN EMPATHIZE." The three nod solemnly.

"Terrible, just terrible… Anyway, what I've been doing for the last ten days is… recon I suppose one would call it. I managed to find a group of other monsters who'd also had their town attacked. We decided we couldn't allow this to go on without finding the reason. Nearly across the continent from us, a human child and a monster child got into a fight. The monster killed the human by mistake and took their soul also by mistake. The humans panicked and only saw the monster child taking the humans soul. They rioted and ended up completely wiping each other out almost… We also learned that any monsters that were left were tortured before being dusted."

Gaster and Vrinda stare at Civetta in horror…

"The humans won't listen to reason. When some of the group I was with tried to explain the misunderstanding to the humans who were going around killing everyone, they completely ignored us and… we didn't make it out with everyone. And yet even with that small loss on top of our other ones, we kept going. We spied on the humans from a distance. Some of us with our superior eyes, and some with our superior hearing or hiding skills. There was a large meeting of humans at one of their town halls in the east and they… Gaster, Vrinda, they're learning to use their own magic."

"W…what? Humans haven't been using magic for decades! I thought magic was dying out for the humans." Vrinda says, gripping her red scarf nervously.

"THEY HAVE BEEN. WHILE I WAS STILL WORKING, I LEARNED THAT STATISTICALLY, HUMANS WITH MAGIC HAVE BECOME LESS AND LESS. EITHER HUMANS ARE BORN WITHOUT MAGIC, OR EVERY NEW GENERATION HAS LESS MAGIC IN IT BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF USE FROM THE PARENTS."

"You aren't wrong. But they know that while they are already physically stronger than we are, we are far better than them at using magic. Their arrows and bullets can only do so much when we have our magic to defend AND attack with. And the days of humans wearing metal and leather armor are long gone. So they decided that to counter our magic, they were going to learn theirs… They really mean to start an all-out war with the monster race. They want to dust us all until there are none of us left…"

The adults are quiet, absorbing the terrible information. Sans looks at all three of them one at a time. He can't tell what they're saying mostly, but there are still a lot of words he does understand. And he can tell that things aren't going well right now.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THE KING AND QUEEN DOING ABOUT THIS?" Gaster says, suddenly angry. He can't believe that the royal family hasn't done SOMETHING about this.

"I honestly doubt that they even know. The humans aren't covering the incident on the news at all. They're pretending that this isn't happening. Security has been upped and any monster that tries to report to the government or to our King and Queen are killed on the spot. But even if they did know I'm sure they'd try diplomacy first…"

"DIPLOMACY?!" Gaster can feel a mouthful of angry words stewing in his mouth, but for the sake of his son he swallows them bitterly. Vrinda reaches and takes his fist lightly in her hand. She and Civetta already knows that Gaster has zero faith in the Royal Family. So naturally he'd take this news harshly.

"DO WE HAVE CODE WORDS SO WE DON'T HAVE TO SAY MEAN THINGS IN FRONT OF THE BABY?" Gaster says nearly through his teeth. Civetta can't stop a small laugh.

"We don't need code words dear, the look on your face says it all."

"I'm not a baby!" Sans says finally. But it's about all he can say. Toddlers his age can really only string together sentences with few words.

"Goodness look at this one, he's telling you right off Gaster!" Civetta hoots a laugh and Sans is glad that something he said was able to make a smile appear on someone's face. He wonders if saying more things will make them smile and laugh more.

"Ah, but getting back to the point. That was all bad news. But even worse still. The humans from that meeting I spoke of know that you are all here. And they plan to raid the place and dust anyone they can. It's magic training for them. So I knew since I was the only flier I had to come down here as quickly as I could to tell everyone on this mountain that they had to leave."

"UNSURPRISING. I KNEW THEY'D FIND US EVENTUALLY."

"You even called the date, Gaster. How I wish you and Civetta were wrong…" Vrinda says sadly. She shakes her head and sighs.

"But you're right. It was inevitable. I'm so glad we heard about this. We never would have known and it would have been a repeat of our home town. Thank you, friend for coming all this way to warn us."

Civetta nods. "Not to worry. Luckily there were several other monster groups I found towards the east that I was able to tell as well. After I rest here for a while I'm going to tell other groups ahead of here as well. I'm hoping they have some fliers to so that I can come back and take a vacation!" She smiles and fans herself with her feathers. Gaster nods and thinks, looking down at the grass.

"LET'S SEE… I WONDER WHERE WE SHOULD GO… THERE ARE GOING TO BE SO MANY MONSTERS MOVING AROUND THAT WE'RE BOUND TO GET NOTICED. BUT SPLITTING UP ISN'T THAT GREAT AN IDEA EITHER… THEN AGAIN IF WE WERE TO MOVE IN A CERTAIN FORMATION OF GROUPS…" Gaster stops talking to the girls and begins to mumble to himself, thinking of routes they could take. Vrinda loves when he gets like this. He's so focused and he often makes funny thinking faces. It's adorable.

The reunion ends after another hour of talking and Sans gets bored and starts talking at the same time as the others. Civetta waves everyone goodbye and flies off to find the next group of people. The skeleton parents take Sans to give him a nap, and then while he sleeps, they run around telling as many monsters as they can about what they learned so they can start the ripple effect and spread the information more. They just hope it doesn't turn into a game of Telephone…

That very same night, people pack their things and begin to take down anything they'd build. The fewer tracks they make the better. And the next day after everyone's had a good night's sleep, they escape from their temporary home and scale the other side of the mountain.

Gaster has been appointed a scouter since he was the one who looked at most of the paths and shortcuts while everyone else was building or healing or gathering food. He guides everyone stealthily and safely through many long miles of rough and rugged terrain. Four days of traveling pass slowly. Everyone is sore, but also thankful for Gaster (and the other few scouters that were given their roles when Gaster would get tired doing it all himself.)

A few of the scouters find a perfect opening at the bottom of a mountain. It's huge and it appears to have housed thousands of humans at some point in the distant past. Buildings and houses and huts and even some crop fields are inside this mountain. It's perfect to fit everyone!

So everyone moves right in, claiming homes and other living spaces. But even as Gaster and his family take a home for themselves, he knows they'll have to leave this place too… Vrinda on the other hand is convinced they'll be able to stay in this place for a very long time.

Civetta and a group of many others return with good news this time. The humans are dumbfounded that the monsters weren't at the spot they thought they'd be! Gaster now thinks that maybe they really can stay in this mountain hideout for longer than he'd anticipated. It brings hope to everyone.


	5. Chapter 5: PapyrusThe second wave

Life in the mountain is peaceful for 5 months. Occasionally, monsters from all over will come to the mountain to try and hide from the humans. They find safety and food and shelter and everyone greets them kindly.

Gaster has taken to being a full time healer, fixing small booboos to large gashes and life threatening wounds. The bigger wounds are usually caused by humans. Vrinda and several others have also become full time healers. But recently things have calmed down. The two finally take a break so they can be with Sans more. They also talk a lot about having a second child. But the two can never really come to an agreement. Timing, resources, the danger levels… All big factors.

The parents have begun noticing Sans talking to himself, to something, or to someONE in his cupped hands. Little imaginary friends. He'll play with some of the other monster children, but they're too old for him and they rough house. Sans gets bored easily since he can't participate in most of the big kid games, so he'll sit and watch the other kids play. Gaster doesn't quite understand, but Vrinda seems to have some idea…

After a rough night's sleep, the parents just lay together with their eyes closed and holding each other's hands between them. Gaster will kiss his wife's slim boney fingers and get a happy hum from her. Days like this remind Vrinda of their early days of dating.

She can still remember clearly the first several days of knowing Gaster. She didn't understand him at all and she didn't like him much after he was being sassy to her on their first meeting. Gaster had done all the work for her parents to make crops and she couldn't stand having some dust eating rural kid doing work that she could do. Her scarf ripped right at the bottom when she attempted to make some crops with a plow and the only person she could think of to ask for help was Gaster… It was humiliating for her to crawl to him after all those days of the two continuously giving each other the hairy eyeball. When she caught him lying in the grass of his front yard she almost didn't go and speak to him. Vrinda almost turned around and never spoke to him… But she'd already made it and he'd already seen her. That day fixing the scarf together was one of the best days of her life… Something so simple and trivial brought them together. It was that exact day that she started feeling weird not being near that dirt eater. Days would pass and they would talk, but when they'd go home, Vrinda would feel empty. Lonely. She wanted to talk to Gaster more and more, and be around him more.

"You know Gaster," Vrinda says through her tired voice. "I think Sans is lonely."

"LONELY?"

"Yeah. He can't play with the older kids, he gets hurt too often. And you and I are busy working most of the time… Sans doesn't have anyone that really understands him. I feel bad…"

Gaster peeks one tired eye down at Vrinda's skull. He leans down and kisses her head and just rests his face there.

"HM… WE SHOULD FIND SOMETHING TO DISTRACT HIM WITH… BUT TOYS ARE PRETTY BORING. HMMM." Gaster thinks hard.

Loneliness huh? He remembers that feeling. And he remembers when such a thing ended.

The day Gaster asked Vrinda to marry him was one of their best days. It was almost a joke the way the two played it out. Vrinda was hanging up laundry to dry and Gaster offered his help when he'd finished doing dishes in Vrinda's house. Towards the end of the pile of clothes, Vrinda had joked about how it was almost like they were acting like a married couple. Gaster, the not-so-smooth skeleton said "So if I asked you to marry me, what would you say?" Vrinda was sorta taken aback of course. She wasn't sure if he was joking. But something about the way Gaster was looking at her made her see that he was being serious. She'd cautiously said "I'd say 'yes' of course." And right then Gaster turned to her and was nearly completely purple with blush and asked her if she'd officially marry him. The rest is history.

Gaster can feel his magic pulsing soothingly with Vrinda's and it feels so right and normal and perfect. The two will sometimes do this on purpose to calm the other down if there's a lot of stress. Occasionally their magic will flow on its own because the two are so drawn to each other.

There is movement between the two sleepy skells.

"Good morning Sans, did you sleep good?" Vrinda says. But there's no response. Her and Gaster open their eyes and look at where the movement is coming from. They're surprised. When they look down, a small but rather long baby skeleton boy is laying in between them.

"WHAT?" Gaster's eyes shoot open and he sits up. Vrinda snaps up with him and the two stare at the baby. SERIOUSLY? Do babies just pop into existence? The two just made a baby by accident again!

But while Gaster is freaking about how they're going to care for the little skeleton, Vrinda sees the bright side of this situation.

"Gaster, we've been talking about having a second child all this time! Oh my god look at him he's so cute! He looks so much like you!" Vrinda leans in closer to the baby's face and the little skell reaches up and baps her face with his tiny hand. She laughs and looks back at Gaster. The poor guy is still in complete shock. He cannot believe this right now. How do they not have a billion babies after years of feeling the way they do about each other? After so many days and nights just sitting quietly loving each other? How are births like this even dictated by monster standards?

"I… HE SURE DOES. WOW… I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. I GUESS IT WAS JUST MEANT TO BE THAT WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE." Gaster leans forward to see the baby closer and takes a close look at his health. He gives the baby an A+ and- The baby begins to cry and flail around a little.

"Uh oh, here we go again. Hehe, Gaster quickly, get clothes!" Vrinda is beyond excited, picking the baby up with her overly huge happy smile. Gaster has always been the more worried, cautious of the two when it came to bringing a second child into the world, while Vrinda was more relaxed and anxious to have another. Gaster thinks that if the two agreed on it, Vrinda would beg to have ten kids or something. She loves kids, what can he say?

"YOU KNOW, I HAVE A FEELING THIS WILL CURE SANS' LONELINESS!" Gaster says while trying to find the proper sized clothing.

"That is a great point! Oh, see babe it was destiny! We were MEANT to have this child! I'm so excited!" Vrinda laughs and kisses the baby's head many, many times, small clacks resounding in their little stone room.

The new baby is a bit livelier than Sans was when he was born, kicking and flailing his arms around and going between yelling randomly and crying. Gaster can already foresee long tiring days of chasing this one around... He rushes around just like before, getting clothes and a bottle and then hopping back onto the bed. The baby is wrapped up and snuggled and he calms down significantly when the bottle of magic infused formula is put into his toothless mouth. He's very happy and very alert, looking all around.

"DID WE EVER DECIDE A NAME BETWEEN THE FEW THAT WE WENT THROUGH?"

"Hmm… You know…" Vrinda runs her thumb down the baby's face and nods as if she's made up her mind.

"He looks like a Papyrus if you ask me." Gaster smiles at Papyrus and rubs his small skull.

"PAPYRUS THEN. WELCOME TO THE WORLD SON." The two of them feed him and faun over him, talking about what Papyrus will be like. Pap is easily going to outgrow Sans in height, they can both already tell. It seems that Sans got more of Vrinda, and Papyrus got more of Gaster. Vrinda squeels and allows herself to cry happily with her new son.

"He's so adorable Gaster, look at his cute little cheek bones!" She says between sniffs, rubbing Papyrus' small cheekbones. Pap moves his head and noms on his mom's finger. Gaster snickers at his toothless son.

"HE'S VERY ACTIVE. I HAVE A FEELING HE'S GOING TO BE A LOUD CRIER… THIS MAY BE HARD VRINDA, TAKING CARE OF TWO OF THEM…?"

"Maybe. But Sans is already such an independent little boy though. And you and I both already know what to expect. Mostly anyway. I think we can do this!" Vrinda nods confidently while Gaster thumbs Papyrus' head fondly. She hands the baby over to Gaster and just leans back to watch.

"Aww.~ This is just precious, Gaster. You, holding another baby boy of ours." She giggles and wipes her eyes. "I wish we owned a camera so I could keep this moment forever." Vrinda puts her hand on the side of her face and just glows. Gaster smiles at her and pats her leg.

"I THINK YOU'LL REMEMBER THIS JUST FINE."

The couple can hear Sans getting out of bed in the other room.

"Oh yay, your big brother is awake now Papyrus sweetie. I hope Sans reacts well."

"ONE WAY TO FIND OUT I GUESS…"

They get off the bed and go to the door, opening it. Sans is already standing there with tired eyes. Gaster chuckles and Vrinda picks him up and repeats her earlier question meant for him in the first place.

"Good morning Sans, my precious boy. Did you sleep well?"

"M-hm." Sans mumbles, rubbing one eye and nodding his head. He yaaaawns and blinks a few times until he spots the bundle in Gaster's arms. Sans makes a confused face, looking up at Vrinda and Gaster both and back down at the blanketed lump.

"Sans baby, you're a big brother now. This is your baby brother Papyrus. Would you like to see him?"

While Sans can't exactly understand a lot of her words, he recalls "brother." He nods and leans hard in Vrinda's arms so he can see the baby better. Gaster scoots closer and adjusts Papyrus so Sans can see him better.

"Papus?" Sans says in shock.

"PAPYRUS. YOUR BABY BROTHER."

Papyrus looks around, then spots Sans leaning in. The two stare at each other for a long time and Gaster begins to worry that maybe this is still too new to his oldest son. But Papyrus smiles and coos at Sans and waves his arms in his direction. That exact second, Sans' eyes light up brighter than the sun and a huge smile springs its way across his face.

"Papayus!" Sans says excitedly. He reaches over to the tiny baby.

"Careful dear. Carefuuulll." Vrinda half whispers. Sans understands and puts his tiny hand on Papyrus' head. The parents can see the obvious love Sans has for his baby brother. It all worked out. Inwardly the two sigh with relief.

Papyrus reaches up and grabs Sans' hand with his two smaller ones and starts chewing on it. Sans just laughs and leaves his hand there.

"Awww Gaster look at them." Vrinda is just all smiles. To her this is one of the best days of her life. Now she's got three amazing males in her life!

"THAT WORKED OUT BETTER THAN EXPECTED. WHAT DO YOU THINK SANS? ARE YOU EXCITED TO BE A BIG BROTHER?"

"Yes!" Sans shouts, rubbing his brother's skull with his free hand. If Gaster didn't know any better, he'd say his sons eyes were filled with stars.

"I love Papayus!" They'll have to work on that.

()

The first few weeks are hard on the parents and Sans. Papyrus wakes up constantly and cries and screams. Even though they already did this with Sans it isn't any easier. It's still a situation filled with sleep deprivation and a very cranky sleepy son, times two now. But Gaster and Vrinda end up finding the perfect rhythm for both boys to sleep and allow the parents to take breaks. Even though they're both still tired, they often cuddle with their boys on their couch and allow the peaceful quiet love to radiate.

A few months go by and Papyrus is growing very fast. He's pretty long and he's already growing out of most of his baby clothes. Some are Sans' old clothes, some are borrowed from their neighbors. He starts learning to hold his head up better. He wiggles on his tummy for tummy time and Sans even gets down with him to try and teach him. Sans loves talking to his brother even though Papyrus can't respond. The baby listens and loves listening to his brother's voice. Sometimes it'll relax him right to sleep and Sans takes offense to it. Why would his brother fall asleep when he's talking to him? But Vrinda explains that it's because his voice is so nice that his baby brother felt safe. Sans takes it better in the future. When Papyrus sleeps, Sans stands at the side of the crib and smiles and stares at his brother until he wakes up.

Vrinda and Gaster both notice how much their oldest is opening up compared to before. He's very invested in his brother's wellbeing. Sans LOVES playing with Papyrus and trying to teach him things that he's learning! He even gets to hold Papyrus sometimes. A few times, Sans has teared up just staring at his brother. Gaster sees this and is completely shocked. Why the hell is he crying? What's wrong? What's going on? But again Vrinda is the one that knows exactly what's going on. "Why are you crying sweety?" She'll ask. Sans will just hug his baby brother close and say quietly "Because I love him." Gaster is honestly surprised a child can feel such strong emotions. Such love that he'll cry just HOLDING the baby. He wonders if Sans just sits there sometimes and has deep revelations about life. Gosh his boys are great.

Sans enjoys tickling his brother. It's a difficult task to tickle a skeleton, but he manages to do it. Vrinda often tells Sans what a good big brother he is. Sans takes his big brother job very seriously and will do anything and everything if it means benefiting Papyrus. But he is three, so sometimes he'll do whatever he can very grumpily. Vrinda giggles at this attitude when it pops up. Sans will be tired or having a rough day, but he'll still help his family. Gaster often watches his family from a doorway. The image of his perfect little family fills him with love and joy.

Sometimes he catches himself begging whatever God there may be that they can live their lives in peace like this forever.

()

Now and again either Vrinda or Gaster will have to go to work and fix someone up. It's quick though and the kids are never ever left alone. If by some slim chance they both have to be away, then they will ask Civetta, their owl monster friend or a trusted neighbor to watch over the boys.

The monsters have begun calling Vrinda and Gaster "doctor." While Vrinda is proud of the title, Gaster wishes people would stop calling him "Dr. Gaster." Official titles make him feel like the jerk that's going to go mad with power someday. A simple farm boy being called "doctor" is a strange thing in his mind. And yet it sticks with him. Vrinda snickers when Gaster gets upset over it.

()

Papyrus at six months finally learns to crawl. He falls on his face sometimes and cries, but Sans is always right on his brothers heals, getting down on his belly and pretending to cry so he can distract Pap from the pain. Papyrus thinks it's hilarious and bounces right back with huge smiles and loud happy screams. He becomes a speed demon and Vrinda actually has to use her magic to catch the baby most times when she has to feed him or put him down for a nap. Gaster on the other hand likes to have Sans and Papyrus have crawling speed battles. It's one of the few times Vrinda has actually heard Gaster belly laugh and not just chuckle or give a small average laugh. Belly laughs from her husband and her sons is music to hear ear holes.

There are nights where Sans wakes up, walks right out of his room and goes next to Papyrus' crib with a blanket and pillow and sleeps next to his baby brother. Gaster finds Sans sleeping like this on the ground many times. While he thinks it's adorable that Sans wants to always be near his brother, the floor is no place to sleep. He'll pick the boy up and put him back in his bed.

Sometimes when Papyrus cries for whatever reason, Sans will cry with him. Vrinda calls it "weird baby sympathy" and thinks it's sweet that Sans is so in tune with his brother that he'll cry with him.

Sans turns three and he can already count to one hundred. He knows all his shapes and colors and most animals. His parents are so proud of their smart boy and they praise him a lot.

()

Gaster often goes to check in with the recon unit near the front of the cave about their position and how the humans are doing. One day, he hears some interesting and… worrisome news.

"The humans are starting to get a little too close to us. We lead them away but we think they're starting to see through the tactic. It looks like we'll have to switch up our strategy." One rat monster says. Gaster folds his arms and sighs, staring at the ground deep in thought.

"DO YOU THINK… WE'LL ACTUALLY HAVE TO START FIGHTING?" He asks. The rat monster scratches the side of their face and hums to themselves in thought.

"I mean… personally, I think we should be preparing to fight and maybe even leave. I've got 5 kids and… I dunno Dr. Gaster. I'm getting a little worried myself."

A small cringe at "Dr. Gaster."

"I SEE… LEAVE HUH?…" Gaster thinks very hard for several minutes. The rat doesn't dare speak while his comrade is in think mode. Mostly because he likes to see the funny faces Gaster makes while he's deep in thought.

"I'LL TALK TO SOME OTHERS ABOUT MAKING A FEW MORE UNITS. DEFENSE AND ATTACK GROUPS AND BACKUP ATTACK GROUPS… DO WE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ROYALS SITUATION?"

"Yeah," the rat says, their round ears suddenly perking up a little bit. Like they forgot.

"The Royal family is still pretty uninformed. We can't get any of us over to them to tell 'em what's been happening to us for almost a year. But from what we can see, King Asgore seems to be catching on to the idea that something isn't quite right. The human's security around him is too tight and even HE can see that something fishy is goin' on here. Queen Toriel looks like she's not worried though. I don't blame her, the two have no idea what's happening… But we'll keep doing our best to sneak in and tell them what's up."

Gaster never had faith in those foolish royals. Or at least not Asgore, the poor naïve fool. Believing anything the humans say without question is not something a king should have on his record.

()

Things with the family settle down a little. Papyrus is six and a half months old and is being fed. The parents have just begun to try and feed him baby food. He's not taking it very well. But the faces he makes gets Gaster to laugh, which makes Papyrus laugh. So it's not all bad.

Gaster stands up from the chair he was sitting in to feed Papyrus and he goes to put the spoon in the sink when Vrinda swings her red scarf around his head and pulls him in for a hidden kiss behind the red fabric. He doesn't resist, smooching her back. Vrinda leans back a small bit and puts the scarf around Gaster's neck, still holding onto it tightly with a big smile.

"I love you.~" She says in a sing song voice.

"I LOVE YOU TOO." Gaster says in the same tone. Sans from the table shouts.

"Me too, Me too!" The little skeleton waves both of his hands in the air, one of them gripping a fork with a piece of pancake on it. Syrup drips off of it onto the ground.

"Of course! I could never leave my sweet baby without kisses." She goes over and swings the scarf around his head and lightly pulls him in to smooch his head. Sans laughs and grabs her face kissing her whole face. Several loud clacking skele kisses happen all at once and Sans screams with laughter. Papyrus claps.

"GET A ROOM YOU TWO." Gaster jokes. Vrinda laughs and stands up straight.

"Awww are you jealous, Wingdings? That's precious." Gaster takes her hand and pulls her in for a big backwards hug, swinging her side to side playfully.

"MY VRINDA. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT SANS? HAH? MINE." He says with a big smirk.

"No, MY mama!" Sans laughs and jumps down from his chair and hugs Vrinda at her legs.

Many days are spent like this, Vrinda being completely outnumbered by boys and loving every second of it.

But this happiness…

It all comes to an abrupt halt.

()

Gaster is out on a walk with Sans to buy some things from their small local market of stolen and grown foods. Stolen from humans of course. Gaster has begun to notice that for the last two weeks, there have been more monsters coming in, having managed to escape from the humans. It worries him. And today it all comes to fruition…

One of the scouters rushes into the opening of the cave out of breath. A panther monster. Gaster wants to stay out of it because he has Sans, and if he can protect him from drama then he will. But at the same time, he has this feeling in his gut that something is wrong.

"Doctor Gaster!" The panther shouts. Looks like there's no turning back now.

"WHAT IS IT FRIEND?" Gaster says, walking over to the monster, holding Sans' hand. Sans can already sense the energy from the panther…

"The king! He's finally been alerted! Something's happened, oh lord!" The panther pants. A crowd has begun to form around the panicked monster and Gaster holds his hand out and says,

"NOW NOW, I KNOW IT'S DIFFICULT, BUT PLEASE CATCH YOUR BREATH AND SPEAK CLEARLY." The panther takes deep breaths and tries to calm down. But of course he can't stop the panic in his voice.

"My recon unit- We were out trying to get in touch with the king and finally one of us managed to sneak in past the humans! The two that got in told the king and queen about what's been happening and King Asgore was outraged. He went to speak to one of the security guards and ask them if he could talk to the man in charge of the humans, but the human seemed to snap and he tried killing him!" They half shout. The growing crowd gasps loudly and begin to whisper harshly.

"Asgore and Toriel got away from a small ambush and managed to sneak to the one in charge of the humans and the bastard used magic on our king! They actually fought, our unit said! After a while Asgore finally gave in and declared war! We're officially at war with the humans! And this isn't even the worst news!" They say. Gaster knows what's coming next. He just knows it. And so does everyone else…

"The humans are aware of our position and are gathering their forces. We're one of the biggest gatherings of monsters and somehow they managed to track our magic because of it! I don't know how they did it but… god, on the way here the entire recon unit was dusted by ambushing forces… I was the only one that escaped. We have to get out of here QUICKLY! They'll be upon us in three days!"

The panic swells up within the crowed. They all look at each other and then disperse quickly, going to tell their friends and family and start packing. Gaster grips Sans' hand a little tighter and grits his teeth. Every choice he's made so far begins to get shadowed in guilt. The humans know where they are… This can't be happening! They just had a baby for crying out loud! Why is this world so cruel? The children haven't done anything, they deserve this hell less than anyone else…

"Daddy?..." Sans' small scared voice comes. Gaster snaps out of it and he looks down. Sans' eyes are wide and scared. He knows exactly what's going on. Gaster puts a hand on the panther monster's shoulder.

"THANK YOU FRIEND. I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE RECON UNIT… AND I'M SORRY AGAIN BUT I MUST ASK YOU TO PLEASE GATHER THE OFFENSE AND DEFENSE GROUPS. OR AT LEAST SPREAD THE WORD. WE CAN'T AFFORD TO PANIC LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. WE NEED ORDER." Gaster says sternly. The panther gulps hard and swallows, standing up straight with a nod.

"Yes, Dr. Gaster I'm on it." The panther rushes off and so does Gaster, grabbing Sans up off the ground and into his arms.

He gets home to the front door and opens it, then sets Sans down. The child immediately runs to Papyrus' crib and looks in to make sure he's safe. Vrinda is humming happily in the living room, dusting. But she can almost instantly feel the mood switch. Normally, Gaster opens the door and says "We're back!" after making sure Papyrus is asleep. But this time she hears Gaster enter, Sans running to Papyrus, and no words.

"Gaster, are you back?" She turns around and Gaster walks up to her and lightly takes her into a hug. Vrinda already knows something terrible has happened. She hugs him back.

"It's happening again isn't it?" She says quietly so Sans won't hear. The two lean away from each other and Gaster nods at her.

"THE KING WAS ATTACKED BY A SECURITY GUARD AND THEN BY THE HUMAN RULER WHO KNOWS MAGIC… ASGORE ACTUALLY DECLARED WAR… HE REALLY DID IT… BUT… FOR THAT INFORMATION, ALMOST THE ENTIRE RECON UNIT WAS DESTROYED BY AMBUSHERS. ONLY ONE MADE IT BACK TO TELL US THAT THE HUMANS NOW KNOW WHERE WE ARE. THEY'RE THREE DAYS AWAY… WE HAVE TO LEAVE OUR HOME AGAIN." Gaster says. The sadness in his eyes makes Vrinda's bones shake…. But she quickly grits her teeth and stands up straight. She's not going to be scared like last time dammit!

"Then we're leaving." She says matter of factly. Gaster winces a little.

"AREN'T YOU-… VRINDA I'M—"

"Don't you DARE tell me you're sorry Wingdings Gaster." Vrinda reaches up and takes Gaster's face in her hands. She kisses him and then leans her face away a small bit.

"I already know exactly what you're thinking. I can feel it. None of this is your fault. We made it out last time and we're going to make it out this time. All four of us. Do you hear me?" Her sockets blaze with determination.

Gaster knows he can't feel sorry for everything right now. He has to disassociate and be logical and think clearly. It's hard, but for his wife and children, he must force himself to calm down.

"YES. I'LL HELP PACK WHAT WE CAN. IT HAS TO BE LIGHT, JUST LIKE LAST TIME. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT PAPYRUS?"

"For now we'll leave him in his crib while you and I pack. Then when we leave, I'll get Papyrus and you get Sans." Vrinda nods once solidly and Gaster returns it. Sans knows what to do as well. Sit and don't get in the way. Papyrus watches his parents rush around the house and pack what they can in a shoulder bag for each of them. One shoulder bag is quite heavy with clothes for the boys and what food they can take without it spoiling or leaving a trace. The other has Gaster's and Vrinda's clothes in them. It's pretty light, just a few outfits for each of them. It doesn't take more than an hour to get everything sorted.

Vrinda goes to Sans and kneels down to his eye level as he sits on the couch.

"Sans sweet heart, we have to leave alright?"

"I know…" Sans says with fear. Vrinda's heart breaks seeing her baby scared for the second time in his short life. It's not fair… It's not fair dammit!

"I'm sorry honey… But we'll be okay. Do you trust me?" Sans nods and wipes his eyes that are beginning to tear up. Vrinda leans forward and hugs her son who starts to cry. She holds him tightly for several long minutes while he cries until he settles down.

"Mommy and Daddy will protect you and Papyrus. We have to hurry though alright? I'm going to get Papyrus and then we're all going to go for a long walk to somewhere safer okay?" Vrinda says, attempting to smile. Sans nods again and looks at Gaster who is standing there with an apologetic look on his face…

Vrinda goes over to papyrus and takes off her scarf and wraps and ties it a certain way. She picks Papyrus up and slips him into the makeshift baby carrier and pulls on the knot to officially secure it. Gaster's actually pretty impressed. He never would have thought of that.

"ALRIGHT SANS, ARE YOU READY?" Gaster says, holding out his hand to him. Sans nods and runs over to his dad, taking his hand tightly. Gaster looks at Vrinda and they share a small nod. They walk out of the house and close the door behind them. The click sounds so final. Sans begins to cry quietly, gripping Gaster's hand tightly.

As they walk to the entrance of the cave, they see several other families either walking out of their own homes, or already at the front just behind the fighting and defense units that have gathered.

"We don't have enough people on defense? You're kidding!" One monster says.

"No… We're short a few people. They were part of the recon unit… We'll probably have to dip in to the reserve people." Another monster says.

"God, you mean we have to draft people?... I can't help but feel like we're no better than the humans if we do that…"

"Me too. But it's either that or we lose even more people…"

Vrinda and Gaster stand there listening with every other family in ear shot. They're going to have to pick people, civilians, to fight and defend… Vrinda prays and prays that neither of them are part of that group. She begs every god she can think of not to take her or Gaster away from their sons…

The two monsters begin naming people sadly and then tell them which unit they'll be joining until they can find a suitable living space. As the names are called, the monsters walk up and over to their assigned groups.

"Flameheart: Defense. Gerson: Offense, Aiden: Offense, Gaster: Defense." The monster reads. When Gaster's name is called, Vrinda's eye sockets widen. No… No! She looks up at him with terrified eyes. His face is nervous, his mouth a tight line of tension…

Gaster looks down at his wife and his children. Sans is clearly scared too. Some man just called his daddy's name and he sees the ones being called leaving.

"Gaster…" Is all Vrinda can say in her shock. But Gaster manages to bring out a quick smile for his family.

"IT'S ALRIGHT. DEFENSE ISN'T SO BAD. I'LL BE CLOSER TO YOU THAN I WOULD BE IF I WERE ON OFFENSE. AND I'VE BEEN WORKING ON A COUPLE THINGS FOR TIMES JUST LIKE THIS."

Vrinda is very upset that Gaster seems so calm about this whole thing. She reaches up and kisses him as much as a skeleton is able to. Once she leans back and looks into his eyes and speaks quietly.

"Don't you DARE die on me Wingdings Gaster…" Gaster smooches her again and then Papyrus. He picks Sans up and gives him smooches as well.

"DON'T BE SILLY. I'M FAR TOO BUSY TO LEAVE YOU ALL." A bright smile. Vrinda is sure that Gaster will be careful… But those humans…. They're so strong. Gaster and his group are really their last lines of defense while they run for it… She hopes it doesn't come to that.

Gaster sets Sans down and whispers to him.

"CAN YOU BE MY STRONG BIG BOY AND LOOK AFTER MOMMY AND YOUR BABY BROTHER?"

Sans nods a little before smashing himself into Gaster in a big hug. He lets go and steps back. Gaster stands up and leans into Papyrus and gives him a kiss and a wave. Papyrus waves back a little, a big happy oblivious smile taking over his whole face.

"I'LL BE BACK BEFORE YOU KNOW IT." He turns around and walks over to his unit. Vrinda watches, her soul quivering with worry. She can't believe this is really happening… A small tug on her hand forces her to look down at Sans who seems to have a new determination in his eyes. Daddy gave him a task and he's going to do it as best as he can!

Finally, the first offense unit moves out. They're careful to be quick about it. The second offense group moves out after them. And then half of the defense group begins to move out. Gaster looks back at his family and gives them a small smile and wave. Vrinda, Sans and Papyrus wave goodbye to Gaster until he disappears outside of the cave. The civilians are guided out of the mountain carefully by the second half of the defense unit and then a third offense unit follows them out.

It takes a little while to get into formation, but it works out. The three offense units form a triangle around the circled defense unit which surround the civilian group. They all walk to the South East.

During the walk Vrinda looks all around for Gaster. As long as she can keep SORT of an eye on him she'll feel better. Eventually she spots him behind her towards her left. He looks focused and ready to spring at any moment. Typical. It brings a small smile to her face.

They walk for the entire day without incident. Eventually they have to make camp once night time comes around. Unfortunately it's right out in the open in a dry desert area. Every unit takes shifts keeping watch. Vrinda sits on the ground with the boys in her lap. She ties the scarf around Sans and Papyrus and manages to make them laugh a little and play with them. They shouldn't have to focus on this horrible situation. Especially Sans who's ALREADY gone through this.

After several hours, Vrinda finds Civetta and hands the boys over to her for a bit so she can find Gaster. She knows exactly where he is.

Gaster is standing and keeping watch still in the circle formation with the other defense monsters. Some of them have their families around them just because leaving one person alone is unacceptable for them.

A hand is placed in the middle of Gaster's back. He peeks and Vrinda walks up and stands next to him.

"VRINDA. I WAS ABLE TO WATCH YOU AND THE BOYS FROM MY POSITION."

"I saw. I waved to you a few times but you were having tunnel vision or something." Vrinda says with a small laugh. Gaster wraps his arm around her waist and kisses her head.

"SORRY. I DIDN'T WANT TO BE UNPREPARED…. IF THERE'S ANYTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS OPEN SPACE IT'S THAT IF THE HUMANS SHOW UP WE'LL BE ABLE TO SEE THEM FOR A GOOD DISTANCE SO WE CAN AT LEAST MENTALLY PREPARE FOR THEM… HOW ARE THE BOYS?"

Vrinda looks forward to the dark horizon and scans it with Gaster. Stars completely take over the dark blue night sky. The moon is out and it looks huge against the distant mountain peaks they left.

"They're… alright I suppose. Papyrus the lucky duck has no idea what's going on. But he's still obviously aware that SOMETHING is up. Sans on the other hand is stressed out. This is twice for him now… I played with them for a bit until they got tired. Civetta is watching them now… Isn't your shift over yet?"

"I THINK I HAVE ANOTHER HOUR TO GO. BUT DON'T WORRY, THE SECOND I'M OFF, I'LL RETURN TO YOU AND THE BOYS IMMEDIATELY. HOW ARE /YOU/ HOLDING UP MY DEAR?"

Gaster shifts his hand and rubs her shoulder a bit, still looking out for anything.

"I'll live. I'm just so nervous. And I'm sad that things have really come to this. I never thought Asgore would really declare war on the humans… He's so kind and gentle… But I guess hearing about what's been going on, PLUS being attacked by the human ruler would send ANYONE to defend their people. So I'm at least glad that he's able to step up… But I'm scared Gaster. I'm so scared that you'll be away from me and the humans will attack and-…" She stops. What she was going to say is obvious, but even uttering the words makes her sick to her magical stomach. Gaster looks down at her and gives her a tight hug.

"I'M SORRY VRINDA… BUT I REALLY WILL DO MY BEST. I TOLD YOU BEFORE RIGHT? I'M TOO BUSY TO DIE. I HAVE YOU GUYS TO LOOK AFTER." He gives her a smile, but Vrinda can't stop the nervous feeling she has. She hugs him tightly and buries her face into his chest.

"Hey!" Someone from the attack unit on the other side of the group shouts. From the North appears to be a small group coming towards them. No one is sure if they're human or monster yet.

"VRINDA, QUICKLY, GO TO THE BOYS."

"Wingdings PLEASE… Please…." Vrinda begs quietly as she leans away from him. Gaster nods and kisses her.

"WE'LL BE FINE. I SWEAR." The two share a moment… and then Vrinda runs back quickly in the direction of their children.

The monsters in ATK unit B with great vision squint to see who is coming to them from the North… And they nod.

"Humans. We'll take care of this side, tell the defense unit not to move from their spots. We'll handle this side." One monster says. A monster from the defense unit rushes off to spread the word.

Eventually the humans come. They are armed with fire, metal and some even have guns… The monsters have fires going so they're not hard to spot. From the Monster's camp, they hear the war cries of the humans as they start to rush at them. All the monsters brace themselves.

Vrinda holds her boys close and Civetta keeps her claws ready just in case one breaks through to them. Luckily, Sans and Papyrus don't wake up from their hard sleep.

The fighting starts as ATK unit B charges and meets the humans half way to keep them as far from their people as possible. Shouting, metal clanging, magic whirring and gunshots are heard going off. The final shouts of the dying fighters echo in the darkness. Several monsters are killed. But so are several humans. The humans retreat with what few numbers they have left and are chased away by the victorious yelling of the monsters. The fight only took 20 minutes…

The human bodies are buried and given little stick crosses to show that they were there. Even the enemy deserves a proper burial.

The rest of the night is scary for some and relaxing for others knowing that their friends could protect them. But for some, the night is cruel. They just lost a family member or a friend in that fight…. Gone forever so they could defend their loved ones…

Gaster's shift ends and he rushes to Vrinda who is still wide awake holding Papyrus in her red scarf still. Sans has his head resting on her very bony lap.

"VRINDA." He says quietly. She looks up and beams. She's so happy he's returned.

"Gaster… Welcome back." Gaster sits with her and leans his head on her shoulder with a sigh.

"I'M SORRY I COULDN'T BE HERE WITH YOU DURING THAT ATTACK…"

"It's okay baby, I understand. You couldn't break formation. Just our luck, the humans would have surrounded us…" The thought is upsetting… but she digresses. For now, Gaster is here with them all and she feels better.

"We'll have to move early tomorrow. You should sleep while you still can."

"I WAS GOING TO SAY THE SAME TO YOU. LET'S BOTH GET SOME REST." The two curl up to each other sitting up and rest their head on each other and quickly go to sleep. It's peaceful for the next several hours.

()

This sort of thing goes on every single day and night for a week. They wake up, walk, get attacked, win or at least chase the humans away, set up camp and get attacked again and chase the humans away and sleep. Rinse and repeat. It's exhausting. Food is hard to come by so everyone has to share and ration their supplies.

Sans copes by playing with Papyrus when they get the chance. It's one of the only things that makes him feel better now. His mommy is so stressed out and tired looking, worried looking… And his daddy is always standing with the other monsters circling them. Sometimes he has to fight if things get rough. But Papyrus… He's happy! He's kinda confused but he's happy and smiling and laughing more than anyone else in this humongous group of thousands of monsters. It's comforting.

When Gaster comes back from his shift, he's always ready to play though. It gives Vrinda a good break from worrying. As long as they're together, she can be happy. Gaster even shows the family what he's been working on for emergencies. Giant, sharp, animal looking skulls that float in the air. They can only use a small bit of magic, but they'd still work if it came down to it. Vrinda is amazed that Gaster can make this sort of thing with bones and magic. It's scary looking. Gaster explains that it's to intimidate the humans. To scare them. She says it's already working.

The most worrying part about these fights is that the humans are using magic now… It's not very strong magic, but it's still enough to push the monster forces to fight harder. Not only that, but sometimes before the humans show up for their attacks, large groups of monsters from other places run to them for safety. Gaster suspects that the humans are doing this on purpose. They're corralling them so they can kill them all at once. But Gaster thinks that they've got another thing coming…

()

Finally, one morning while most of the monsters are sleeping, a small group walks towards them. A monster group. Those who are awake squint and try to see who it is…

"What can you see?" Says one reptilian monster to their feline friend.

"Let me see… Oh… Oh my god. Is that…. Is that King Asgore?" They say. Those awake hear and start to sit up straighter and look in the group's direction like a family of meerkats. Their King? Can it be?

The Purple cape of their King blows in the wind as he nears. He raises his horned head and looks at the huge group ahead of him, hidden in a slightly more forested area. The trees are thin, but they provide much needed shade on such a hot day as this. When Asgore sees some of the monsters peering at him warily, he raises one large furry hand and waves with a big smile.

"The King! Our king is here!" The reptile shouts at the group. More people wake up and look over. Including Vrinda and Gaster.

"Wait, King Asgore is here?" Vrinda says in slight shock. He should be being protected somewhere in a building, not out here in the lightly forested wild. Gaster sits up and squints. His right eye's vision isn't as good as it used to be so he closes it and tries again.

"LOOKS LIKE IT… UNBELIEVABLE. THERE REALLY IS NOWHERE ELSE THAT'S SAFE IF EVEN THE KING AND QUEEN ARE OUT HERE…"

Vrinda looks down at their boys sleeping in the tall grass and she lightly runs her hand across each of their heads.

"I can't wait for this to be over…"

Gaster peeks at his wife and her sad face just gives his soul an extra tight squeeze.

"IT'LL BE OVER SOON I BET. ASGORE WILL TALK HIS WAY OUT OF THIS JUST LIKE HE HAS FOR THE LAST HOWEVER MANY YEARS. BUT NO MATTER WHAT VRINDA, WE'LL BE TOGETHER." He tries to give her a tired smile. Vrinda smiles back at him and nods.

"I know we will."

Asgore and Toriel and their group finally merge with the bigger group and everyone mingles quickly, finding friends and family. The King is given the lead role now to guide the people somewhere safe. Whatever maps they have are covered in X's and circles for safe and unsafe places. In collaboration with the king, the leaders of the collection of monsters talk about an abandoned town. It won't hold them all, but it will at least be a decent resting place for a few days maybe. It's decided, they'll head there and then mull over future plans.

()

While the now larger group walks, monsters regal the king and queen with their stories of their homes and loved ones being destroyed. They explain how this all started in each of their living places and what they've had to go through up until now. Gaster wishes they'd be quiet… What is Asgore supposed to do about it? He already declared war on the humans, there's no need to burden him with sob stories. He grumbles sometimes and Vrinda just pats his shoulder with a small laugh.

Vrinda and Gaster take turns holding Papyrus and Sans when he gets tired. The adults may be skeletons and are able to walk for longer without pain, but these walks are still agony on their bones. They'll go for hours until the back of the group begins to fall behind… Everyone is sure that those in the back will be the first ones the humans will target. Or, maybe while the fronts back is turned to look at those in the back the humans will attack then too. Everyone is pretty paranoid.

Gaster is called in to do his shift in the defense unit, so he kisses his family goodbye. Asgore watches the shift changes and is quite impressed with the near seamless transition of units.

"Who exactly came up with such a formation? It's a good idea. I don't think I would have thought of such a thing." Asgore says. He and Toriel are more towards the front of the group of course, but everyone insisted that they surround the Royal family to protect them. One canine monster speaks up.

"There was a scouting unit we used to have back in the cave that made this formation. There was… Hmmm… Atlas, Sage, Dr. Gaster, Dawn—"

"You don't need to name ALL of them, you'll never remember them all." The dog monsters friend says.

"Golly… I'm so sorry such terrible things happened to you all while Tori and I weren't aware." Their tall king says sadly. Toriel nods in agreement.

"I never thought the humans would really go this far… But it seems we've learned this lesson the hard way. But I'm sure we'll be alright. Monsters are rather strong! You've all managed to hold your own for so long and I'm very proud of you all." The queen smiles and everyone within earshot glows with pride. Praise directly from the Royal Family is quite the honor.

()

For two days small groups of humans attack and are felled by the attack units. Toriel doesn't like having to kill the humans, but… sacrifices must be made to save her people. So she forces herself to look away and try to ignore the sounds of fighting.

But finally, the abandoned town from the map is in sight. The town is a little bit bigger than everyone was expecting, which is perfect. It looks like an old western town from the TV shows. The wood is old and beginning to rot, but it's better than nothing. The food is incredibly scarce… Peach, apple and plum trees are really the only source of food around this place. Some berry bushes are around, but there's not nearly enough to feed every monster. Most parents including Vrinda and Gaster give up their food rations so that their boys can eat. Sans insists on sharing, but even as their magical stomachs tighten at the sight of food, they just smile and tell him to eat.

That night, neither parent can sleep.

"Hey Gaster?..." Vrinda says. She only gets a small hum in response. "How are we going to feed the boys like this?... The trees and bushes have already been picked clean of food… And we're not staying here so we can't wait for anything else to grow." Her growing worry is clear in her voice. She looks over at Gaster who just stares up at the ceiling of the shed the family is staying in. It's just big enough for all four of them.

"I DON'T KNOW… BUT TOMORROW I'LL GO LOOKING FOR FOOD. I'M JUST AS WORRIED AS YOU ARE…. HEH, YOU'D THINK FOR BEING A BUNCH OF SKELETONS WE'D NEED TO EAT LESS HUH?" He manages to let out a small airy chortle. Vrinda giggles a bit.

"Seriously. I hope you find something. I'll do my best to distract the boys…" Vrinda starts to say something, but quickly clicks her teeth shut. Gaster already knows what she was going to say.

"I'M HUNGRY TOO. I PROMISE I'LL DO MY BEST TO FIND US SOMETHING TOO, OKAY?" Gaster reaches over and takes her hand and thumbs her palm.

"I know you will." After several minutes of silence, Vrinda finally falls asleep holding her husband's hand. Gaster stares at her sadly… He absolutely will not allow his family to starve… Without any remorse, he knows that if he finds a little extra food that he won't be sharing with anyone else. His family comes first and he WILL keep them safe.

Just the idea of seeing their faces light up in excitement with food in their hands sends a rush of determination and adrenaline through his bones. And so he sits up and carefully removes his hand from Vrinda's and then looks down at his sons. Each one is laying in a little basket of old human clothes and blankets, sleeping soundly. Better than the ground anyway…

Gaster leaves the little shack and looks around. Pretty much everyone is asleep except for a stray few just like him. That's good, he can sneak food in without anyone noticing hopefully. Gaster rushes off quickly and gets about a mile away before he starts to seriously search.

Further ahead where the monsters haven't traveled yet, he sees some trees. He goes over and there are some small apples. Bingo! He wishes he brought a sack along with him… But for now, he takes off his over shirt and uses that to collect anything he can. Only 3 apples. Three pathetically small apples…

"IT COULD BE WORSE I GUESS…." Gaster mumbles to himself.

He searches for hours until he walks over something that sounds strange. Like metal. It startles him and he takes several steps away from the sound.

"WHAT ON EARTH?" Gaster looks at his feet. There appears to be a metal hatch under a thin layer of earth…

"IS THIS…. OH YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" He says quietly to himself, getting on his hands and knees to brush the dirt away. He finds a metal handle.

"YES! COME OOONNN JACKPOT." Gaster summons a floating magical skeleton hand with a hole in the palm and lifts the heavy metal hatch. Stairs lead down into a concrete bomb shelter.

"OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT… YES!" Gaster looks around him to make sure no one is watching and he rushes inside, letting his magical hand close the hatch behind him. He runs and searches the entire place, nearly turning it upside down.

It's so cold. It's all made of concrete and steel… The lights are on, but they're awful. It almost hurts Gaster's eyes.

Metal shelves line every wall in this place. There are a bunch of circuit breakers, wires and for some reason, paintings? It's cool looking and all, but where the hell is the food? There's no way the humans would have made a bomb shelter without food…

After a half an hour of looking, Gaster comes to a side door. The label on the right side of the door says "Food."

"FINALLY. PLEASE BE FULL, PLEASE BE FULL, PLEASE BE FULL…." Gaster whispers to himself as he uses his magic to forcefully unlock the door. When he opens it, he can't stop a huge smile. The food storage room is HUGE. And it's completely packed with food! There's cans upon cans of vegetables and fruits, boxes of pasta, coffee, rice, beans—BABY FORMULA! Gaster gasps and rushes to the baby formula, looking at the dates. It's safe.

"YES YES! THANK GOD!" Gaster says out loud and laughs. Finally his youngest will be able to have PROPER baby formula! Yes! He looks around and finds an old potato sack that's empty and he begins to fill it with food. There's enough food in this damn place for every monster in the giant group! And HE found it. It's only fair he gets first dibs right?

Once the sack is filled, Gaster ties it up and uses a magic hand to carry it out behind him. He runs the whole way back and thanks the lord that the stragglers in the town are sleeping now. With light footsteps, Gaster sneaks back into the little shed with his sleeping family. Or rather sleeping children.

Vrinda sits up awake, clearly having woken up a while ago and was wondering where her husband had gone. When Gaster opens the door she looks quickly, ready to defend or be welcoming. She sees Gaster and she sighs with relief. She goes to say something, but Gaster puts a finger to his lips to shush her quickly. Gaster walks in silently and places the sack down and closes the door behind him.

"VRINDA, LOOK I FOUND A HUGE HUGE PLACE WITH A TON OF FOOD!" Gaster says turning back to his wife with a huge smile. Vrinda's eyes are gigantic staring at the completely full sack. She looks up at him in shock. Gaster knows exactly what she wants to say. Normally he'd answer her question before she could ask, but he lets her speak.

"Gaster, this is amazing! But what about everyone else? Was there enough food for them too?" Gaster nods.

"ABSOLUTELY. IT'S A BOMB SHELTER THAT THE HUMANS MADE FOR THEIR EVENTUAL FALLOUT WITH THEMSELVES. I SEARCHED FOR HOURS AND I FOUND A HATCH THAT LEAD DOWN INTO IT. NOT VERY SAFE IF YOU ASK ME. BUT IT MADE IT EASIER TO GET IN AND FIND THE FOOD! ONCE YOU AND THE BOYS ARE FULL, THEN I'LL TELL THE KING. OH OH! THERE'S BABY FORMULA THAT'S GOOD IN THERE!" Vrinda quickly reaches in and searches and grabs out the tin of formula. She's so happy she could cry. Her sons finally get to eat more. And her and Gaster get to eat now too! A small part of her mind worries about the other thousands of monsters who weren't able to eat… and she feels guilty. She thinks about Gaster's thoughts though. "Family first" She can practically hear him say. And right now she's so hungry she doesn't dare argue.

Vrinda wakes Sans up and opens a can of fruit for him with her magic. Sans nearly chokes on the sliced peaches with the speed he eats them. Gaster takes a bottle from one of their shoulder bags they brought and uses some water he took to make his son a real bottle. Papyrus is too tired to wake up but he slams the 8 ounce bottle.

And there it is. The light in the eyes of his loved ones. The glee that comes with food and a full stomach. Gaster can't stop a delighted laugh. He can feel himself tearing up, so happy that he could provide for his family.

The family is finally full. They hide the food under an old coat just in case…

"Thank you daddy!" Sans says with the biggest tired smile he's probably ever given him. Gaster leans down and kisses him on the head, tucking him into the basket of clothes.

"YOU'RE WELCOME SON. ARE YOU FULL OF FOOD NOW?"

"M-hm." Sans mumbles, falling asleep. He drifts off with a big smile on his face and Gaster sighs happily, rubbing his son's skull.

"Thank you so much, Gaster… What would we ever do without you?" Vrinda says as she puts Papyrus in his own cloth basket.

"AW, DON'T ASK THAT, I DON'T WANT MY EGO TO GROW." The two chuckle a little. Vrinda scoots over to Gaster's side more and hugs and kisses him.

"I knew you'd keep your promise, but I didn't think you'd keep it so well. You saved us babe." Gaster wraps an arm around her waist and kisses the top of her head.

"I'M HONESTLY LUCKY I FOUND THE DAMN THING…. I'M SO S—" Vrinda puts her finger to his mouth and shakes her head, shushing him quietly.

"I love you Gaster, you magnificent man you." She takes her hand away and replaces it with her mouth. Several clacks and clicks fill the small shed.

"I LOVE YOU TOO, VRINDA. MORE THAN ANYTHING."

The two finally fall asleep and rest easy.


	6. Chapter 6 Vrinda

That next morning, Gaster wakes up early and kisses his still sleeping family goodbye. He gets a mumble from Vrinda so at least she KNOWS he's leaving this time. Gaster goes straight to the King's little house and gathers him, Toriel and a couple of ATK unit members.

A roaring yawn from King Asgore. He rubs his eyes and looks around at the group.

"Good morning everyone. Dr. Gaster seems to have something very important to say to us all, so please pay attention. Dr. Gaster, please share."

Gaster rolls out the map that the king and queen brought with them and circles a small area.

"ABOUT FIVE MILES TO THE NORTH EAST IS A BOMB SHELTER. I WON'T LIE TO YOU ALL, I WENT LOOKING FOR FOOD FOR MY WIFE AND CHILDREN. I FOUND THIS BOMB SHELTER AND I WENT INSIDE."

Toriel gives Gaster a look that he sees from the corner of his eye. Of course she'd be a little upset. But he doesn't care one bit.

"I HAD TO GO IN PRETTY DEEP TO FIND THE FOOD. THERE'S ENOUGH IN THERE TO FEED EVERY SINGLE MONSTER IN THIS GROUP." This seems to get everyone's attention.

"It'll feed EVERYONE?" One of the ATK monsters says in shock.

"EVERYONE I TELL YOU. THERE'S BABY FORMULA AND BABY FOOD AND RICE AND WHEAT, THERE'S EVERYTHING. FRUIT, VEGETABLES YOU NAME IT AND IT'S THERE. I SAY IF WE WANT TO GET EVERYONE FED IN A TIMELY MANNER, WE'D BETTER HEAD OVER THERE RIGHT NOW TO TAKE THE FOOD…. YOUR MAJESTY YOU LOOK UPSET. PLEASE SPEAK YOUR MIND." Gaster says, looking up at Toriel.

"But what if something does happen and the humans are without food?"

"WITH ALL DUE RESPECT YOUR HIGHNESS THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD." Toriel's eyes go wide, not used to having someone speak to hear like that.

"THE HUMANS WANT TO MURDER US ALL AND BLOW OUR DUST IN THE WIND, AND YOU'RE WORRIED THAT THE HUMANS MIGHT GO A LITTLE HUNGRY EVEN IF IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT? LISTEN, WHEN YOU HAVE A CHILD YOU'LL UNDERSTAND. IF YOUR SEVEN MONTH OLD AND THREE YEAR OLD CHILDREN AND YOUR SPOUSE ARE STARVING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, YOU /ARE/ GOING TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSES FOOD TO KEEP THEM ALIVE AND HEALTHY. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE HERE, BUT I'M GONNA MAKE THIS CLEAR. I WILL DO ANYTHING IT TAKES TO PROTECT THEM AND KEEP THEM ALIVE INCLUDING STEALING FROM THE GENOCIDAL HUMANS." The fiery passion in his eyes is enough to shut everyone up. Some other members of the group nod in agreement.

"NOW, THE EASIEST WAY TO GET THERE IS TO JUST GO IN A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE NORTH EAST. I SPENT HOURS ZIGZAGGING LIKE A FOOL SO I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THIS PATH IS EASIER. I'LL LEAD YOU ALL THERE SO WE WASTE AS LITTLE TIME AS POSSIBLE. YOUR HIGHNESS IF YOU'D LIKE TO STAY HERE THEN PLEASE DO. I JUST THOUGHT I'D TELL YOU AND KING ASGORE WHAT EXACTLY IS GOING ON."

Toriel is in a bit of shock. Gaster is very forward and blunt with his feelings. She thinks that perhaps he resents the royal family for being so spoiled while the rest of the monster race has been suffering for so long… All she can do is understand and nod her head.

"We'll stay here. Thank you for informing us."

"Wait wait wait a second, I'll go too. I can carry a lot!" King Asgore says quickly, putting both of his big hands on the table.

"Please let me come with you!" Gaster looks up from the map at the King and can see that he's serious… It's true, Asgore is a very strong very large monster. He could indeed carry a whole lot of food. And the faster they snag the food and return to town, the better.

"ALRIGHT THEN. LET'S HURRY UP EVERYONE, BEFORE WE'RE SPOTTED SOMEHOW."

It's settled, and a group of forty monsters leave the town. By this point, several families have woken up and are waving and wishing the others good luck. Vrinda is standing with the civilians, Sans at her side and Papyrus in her arms. She waves with Sans and then takes Pap's little arm and has him wave. Gaster winks at them with a big smile and the gatherers leave.

It doesn't take long. A brisk speed walk of an hour to the shelter and another hour back gains many families food. A few more trips are taken and before everyone knows it, night is upon them again. All of the hard labor the monsters did carrying huge heavy sacks and crates of food was well worth it. Everyone gets to eat. Every family is full and they actually have a little food to spare. Fires outside are off limits in case a group of humans spots them. So any fires that ARE made are held inside bigger buildings with the windows and doors open. It provides at least a LITTLE cover while everyone boils water or heats up cans.

The monsters decide to stay for an extra two days since they appear to be safe. It's a well-deserved resting period for everyone.

Gaster and Vrinda play with the boys. Sans like trying to help Papyrus walk and right now he's holding his hands and scooting back slowly so Papyrus can keep up. The youngest screams and laughs with excitement at taking some of his first steps. The parents cheer the children on.

"Go, Papyrus go! The greatest walker of them all!" Vrinda says and claps.

"GOOD WORK SANS! SLOWLY NOW. YOU'RE BOTH DOING SO WELL!" Gaster gets on one knee and holds out his hands to Papyrus. Sans leads Papyrus to Gaster and flops back into his father's arms with a laugh, taking Papyrus with him. Gaster "oof!"s and catches them both. Vrinda just claps and cheers, proud of all of her boys. It's been a while since they've been able to relax like this and just play with the boys. It's really nice.

"Alright, my turn!" She says, throwing one end of her red scarf over her shoulder. All three boys stand up straight, yes including Papyrus, and Vrinda walks over and takes Papyrus' hand. She walks him slowly in the thin grass and just basks in the glow that is Papyrus' excitement for walking. He's so happy and she almost can't handle it. She laughs when Papyrus belly laughs. He almost falls over a couple times when he's too busy laughing and not focusing, but Vrinda straightens him out. Sans runs over to Papyrus' other side and takes his hand, walking slowly. Gaster watches them all from his spot and waves when Sans turns and waves at him excitedly.

Eventually Papyrus gets tired and a bit cranky, so the play settles down a bit. Gaster goes through some math with Sans, counting by ones to a hundred, and by tens to one thousand. He praises Sans heavily, proud to have such a smart son. Sans totally soaks all that pride up and beams like a well-watered flower.

Dusk falls and some monsters start to go inside as it gets colder. Gaster is called to a little group meeting about what they're all going to do next. He wonders why the hell he's been dragged into this position. He was never really an important figure for anything. Just like everyone else, he ran from home with his family and did his best to survive. Sure, he did some scouting to find their new home in one of the caves of the mountains, and sure he collaborated with the REAL monsters in charge in making the formation they're using to move around in, but should he really be in the same room with the royal family and some very real fighting units? In Gaster's mind he's just "some guy" that sorta kinda did some things, but this is a bit much!... He bets it's that damn "Dr. Gaster" title that people have been calling him and Vrinda. It makes him sound official when he's really not. It's a little worrisome, but if these monsters want Gaster to be there for the meeting then he really can't say no. Especially if it gets him special information that he can use to protect his family better. So Gaster just kinda sucks it up and deals with his awkward feelings.

An anteater monster from the ATK unit tacks a large map to the table on all four corners and uses a stick from outside to point to locations.

"We're pretty surrounded by mountains at this point. Here is Mt. Mobuku, Mt, Ebott being the closest, and Mt. Bosque. Moving out tomorrow is our best option. If we stay here for much longer we could be cornered." They say, pushing up their round glasses up their long snout. The others nod a little.

"IF WE WERE TO GO FURTHER EAST THOUGH WE'D HIT THE COAST. WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF ROOM TO ESCAPE… THE AMOUNT OF ABANDONED AEAS GOING THIS WAY ARE GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER. WHAT IF WE HEAD NORTH?" Gaster says while he slides his finger up the map. Asgore shakes his head.

"Unfortunately that is not an option. The North is very densely populated. Even if there were some route to get up there while avoiding humans, the conditions up there aren't very good. I worry that we'd lose some of us."

"If we were to go South East though once we break away from the mountains here—"

"No no no, we'd still get cornered over there too."

Everyone sighs all at once, frustrated that there don't seem to be any safe places for them all to go. The entire human race seems to want to eradicate the monster race. There are billions of them and really only thousands of monsters left after most of their cities and towns were burned down and… neutralized. The group they have right now is probably the last of their kind…

"Perhaps we should all sleep on this… I can see that we're all getting frustrated and tired. Tomorrow, we MUST come up with a plan and then leave." Asgore says finally. The other members of the group nod.

"OH, YOUR HIGHNESS, I'VE BEEN MEANING TO ASK… WHAT SORT OF MAGIC WERE THE HUMANS USING TO FIGHT YOU?" Gaster says suddenly. The others look at him… then at Asgore. Their king folds his strong arms over his chest and he sighs.

"It was very powerful. Just as strong as my magic. I was very shocked because I knew humans had only very small amounts of magic and they weren't even using what they had. But golly have they been training. Even as we were running away from them, their magic reached us rather far away and it was still strong… Why do you ask?" Asgore says. He watches Gaster tap his chin in thought silently for a few seconds.

"CURIOUS IS ALL. WE ABSOLUTELY CAN'T LET OUR GUARD DOWN ONCE WE START WALKING AGAIN. WHILE YOU AND THE OTHERS WERE GONE, OUR ATTAK AND DEFENSE UNITS WERE FIGHTING OFF HUMANS EVERY NIGHT FOR A WEEK AND A HALF, AND THEY RARELY USED MAGIC. THEY MOSTLY JUST USED HANDHELD WEAPONS. BUT IF THEY DARED TO ATTACK YOU, ASGORE, THE STRONGEST MONSTER ALIVE, WITH MAGIC…. I JUST REALLY THINK IT'S WISE TO HAVE EVERYONE ON HIGHER GUARD THAN NORMAL. IF THEY DO ATTACK US WITH MAGIC THEN WE HAVE TO SHOW THEM THAT OUR MAGIC IS BETTER, STRONGER." The others nod in agreement. Monsters are literally MADE of magic. How could they lose in a duel against a human using magic? There's no way. Showing those humans what magic can do might just scare them off and force them to stop this war all together!

"While I don't like fighting," Asgore says. "We absolutely must protect our people… I'm sorry it's come to war everyone…"

Once the little meeting is over, Gaster walks home thinking hard about their options for getting out of this little pocket they've walked themselves right into. He walks into the shed and sees Vrinda putting the boys in their baskets. Sans sees daddy though and hops out of his tucked in position to hug his father's legs.

"Daddy!" Sans shouts. Gaster picks him up and smooches him all over, getting some giggles from Sans.

"Aw, I had him all tucked in and everything." Vrinda says jokingly. Papyrus does a little wave from his basket and Gaster sits down with Sans in his lap, leans over and kisses Papyrus and then sets Sans back in his basket.

"WHOOPS. HEHE. ALRIGHT FAMILY LISTEN UP. IT SEEMS THAT TOMORROW WE WILL HAVE TO LEAVE THIS PLACE AND CONTINUE WALKING."

"Aw man… We can't stay here?" Vrinda says as she re-tucks Sans into the basket. Gaster shakes his head and leans against the door.

"NO. WE STUDIED THE MAP THAT WHOLE TIME AND IT LOOKS LIKE WE SORTA WALKED RIGHT INTO A POCKET OF MOUNTAINS. THREE OF THEM. IT'S JUST NOT SAFE TO STAY HERE FOR MUCH LONGER OR WE MIGHT JUST GET CORNERED. THAT WAS THE BIGGEST CONCERN…. WE'RE NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHICH DIRECTION WE'RE GOING TO BE HEADING YET, BUT TOMORROW I'VE GOT TO GET UP EARLY AGAIN SO WE CAN MAKE OFFICIAL PLANS AND THEN HEAD OUT." Gaster sighs and slumps tiredly. Vrinda pats his leg.

"I know you'll all figure something out. I wish I could help…"

"TRUST ME, YOU TAKING CARE OF THE BOYS WHILE I'M FORCED TO BE AWAY IS HELP ENOUGH. I KNEW THAT DR TITLE WOULD GET ME INTO TROUBLE SOME DAY. THEY THINK I'M AN ACTUAL DOCTOR, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?" Vrinda just giggles and scoots closer to Gaster.

"I can. You helped a lot of people back in the cave. The people who you helped look up to you sweetie."

"I WISH THEY'D LOOK UP TO ME A LITTLE LESS AS A DOCTOR AND MORE OF A FARM HAND TO BE HONEST."

The two chatting quietly sends Sans and Papyrus to sleep. When Sans starts snoring, the parents look down and decide they should head to bed too. They snuggle up together and rest easy.

()

Four hours pass until some noises wake Vrinda up. She yawns and stretches and takes stock of her little living space. The boys are still in their baskets… Gaster is still at her side sound asleep. The noise is strange, but it sorta sounds like a stampede? She stands up quietly and carefully from the ground and goes to the door. With a small creak, Vrinda opens the door just a little bit. In the distance she can see smoke from small fires. But when she takes a look closer to their camp…..

Thousands of humans are running at the abandoned town. How…. HOW could they have found the monsters?! Vrinda turns and shakes Gaster harshly.

"Gaster! Gaster wake up!" Gaster's eyes are open immediately and he sits up, the two head-butting each other accidentally.

"WHAT IN THE—"

"Gaster the humans! There are TONS of humans here! We have to run!" Vrinda's eyes are huge and she's rattling violently with fear. Gaster stands up and goes to the door. He looks out and sees… God save them. His heart drops. There's no way they'll make it out of here…. There's so many of them…! No! No, he has to protect his family! Behind him, Gaster can hear Papyrus crying, scared from the shouting. Sans is awake and looking around frantically. Other monsters that heard Vrinda's shouting are waking up now and panicking, running around their borrowed homes for weapons or to hide.

"Wingdings, come ON, we have to run!" Vrinda shouts. She's got Papyrus wrapped up in her red scarf around her torso again. Sans grabs Gaster's pant leg and stares at him with wide terrified eyes.

"WHERE, WHERE ARE WE GOING TO RUN?" Gaster says mostly to himself. They're cornered. They're really cornered! It doesn't matter which direction they go, as long as they get out of here. Gaster picks Sans up and then grabs Vrinda's hand and runs for it. Other monsters have begun to run for it too. Every direction has a monster sprinting, some bumping into each other and tripping, some rushing out to fight the humans and meet them half way. Asgore is one of them. He's in full armor and he has a giant red trident in his hands sprinting with heavy steps. Oh god oh god oh god! The humans dust the few monsters that made it to the front line and completely bum rush the town. It's a total cluster fuck of bodies, both monster and human, fighting.

Papyrus and Sans scream and cry from all the noise. So much screaming in the air. But Gaster runs on with his family, anywhere away from the humans.

"Gaster, they're catching up to us!" Vrinda shouts as a large group of humans run right towards them. The only reason she can tell in this darkness is because the moon is huge and bright in the night sky.

"DAMMIT ALL. I'LL TRY TO HOLD THEM OFF." A gasp from his wife is all he has to hear before he stops her before she speaks.

"VRINDA I'M SERIOUS, I'LL—"

"Shut your mouth Wingdings Gaster you and I are NOT splitting up do you understand me?!" Gaster's never EVER heard her shout at him like that, but he's pretty sure humans are worse than his wife's wrath.

And yet it doesn't matter in the end. A wave of monsters comes from in front of Gaster and Vrinda and the monsters and humans clash with the family right in the middle. Gaster holds his wife close, but in the struggle and fighting, Sans is pulled away from Gaster and then dropped to the ground. A human tries to spear him, but Vrinda uses her magic to hit the human away. She picks Sans up quickly into her arms tightly and busts her way out.

"Gaster come on this way!" She shouts and pushes through. The monsters let her go past and she runs into the open. She turns around to say something to Gaster, but he's not behind her.

"G-Gaster?! WINGDINGS!" She yells. But if Gaster responded, she couldn't hear. There's too much yelling. From the side of the fighting group she just escaped, five humans rush at her. There's no time. She can't wait for Gaster…

"Oh god Gaster, please be okay, please!" Vrinda says as she runs as fast as she can. She jumps over fallen logs and rushes past trees and tall bushes, hoping to lose the humans in the brush and in the dark.

"Mom, what about daddy!?" Sans says through his sobs.

"He's okay Sansy sweet heart, I know he is! We'll see him a little later okay?" Sans doesn't believe that for a second. He wants to but… he's already seen so much.

Two humans catch up to her and start yelling.

"There it is! Hurry up before it gets away!" The human man says. He's tall and strong. Vrinda looks forward and does her best to keep running. Magic hits her in the back and it pushes her over onto her side. The ends of the scarf that were tied on Vrinda's back are ripped and torn. Vrinda just manages to catch Papyrus in her arm before he goes flying.

The second human jumps next to her and stomps on one of her legs, breaking one of the bones. Vrinda screams in agony, her yellow magic beginning to flare up in her eyes. The human rolls her over and yanks Papyrus right out of her arms.

"A baby? God they're spreadin'!" The human woman says to the man behind her who's walking up.

"No, give him back!" Sans screams. The woman looks at Sans and can't believe it. They're ALL skeletons!

Before the woman can do anything though, yellow magic completely encases the woman's head, cutting off the oxygen supply. The lady drops Papyrus right into Vrinda's waiting arms. She uses her magic to hold what's left of her leg together and she continues running. The man chases them, but Vrinda uses another wave of magic to cut his arm clean off. The man's screams chase Vrinda and her sons for a good long while. She manages to get away until she can't hear them anymore.

Vrinda sees what appears to be an abandoned gas station and she limps inside as quietly as she can and hides under the front desk. It's almost pitch black inside. Hopefully that helps. Vrinda pants and tries to take deep breaths so she won't be heard. But Papyrus is still screaming. Some person just yanked him away from his mommy.

"Oh baby please be quiet, please, mommy's here, it's okay." Vrinda says as soothingly as she's able to. Her leg hurts so bad… It's excruciating and her magic is wearing out…. Can she heal it?

"Mom! Mommy are you okay?" Sans says through tears. He sees her leg is completely broken into pieces where it snapped.

"I'm okay baby, I'm okay. Are you alright? We took quite a spill didn't we?"

"I'm okay mommy, but your leg—"

"I'll fix it up right now so we can move faster. Can you do your best to quiet Papyrus down?"

"Y-yes!" Sans takes Papyrus from Vrinda and rocks him back and forward. He can see the scarf is completely ripped up and dirty now. It used to be so vibrantly red and beautiful… Now it's almost destroyed at the ends.

Vrinda focuses hard on her leg and manages to heal it up a little bit. Just enough so that it won't fall apart when she runs next time. Now she turns to her boys. They have so many giant tears going down their poor faces. Vrinda takes one end of the torn up scarf and rubs each of their eyes with it and smiles.

"It'll be alright boys. Mommy will protect you no matter what, okay? Do you trust me?" She says. Sans looks up at her and hugs her tightly with his one free arm.

"Yes…" Sans says quietly. He's so scared. Papyrus, his poor baby brother almost got taken away and hurt by that lady… And the man hurt his mommy and she almost couldn't walk. And his daddy…. His daddy isn't even there. Gaster always was the one who protected them with his brute strength and now he's not here at all. What if he's dead? What if he's dust like those other monsters?

Sans' tears start to bubble up again and he buries his face in his moms fading yellow dress.

BANG! The front doors of the gas station are kicked in by one human man. A different one than before.

"I know you're in here you damn monster freak." He says in a low voice. Vrinda quickly holds Sans and Papyrus close to her. She's so thankful that Papyrus isn't crying right now. It may only save them for a little while longer, but it's better than no time at all.

The man slowly walks through the store, one quiet step at a time. Vrinda can feel the man's magic radiating from his direction. The humans may have learned to USE magic, but they're pretty awful at hiding it.

"I saw you hobble in here. I know you're here, so just come out and let me dust you already. Don't make this harder for both of us alright?" The human says. Vrinda thinks that's an interesting choice of words… Does he not WANT to be here?

The footsteps get closer to Vrinda's right side until she sees his black shoes. She prays that he doesn't bend over to see under the counter….

But he does. He bends over and sees Vrinda.

"Gotchya." He says. He grabs her ankle and drags her out ferociously.

"No! No no no please don't!" Vrinda begs when she sees the man reeling back to hit her with a metal bat. A quick swing hits her in one arm, breaking it completely off. She screams in pain and rolls to one side.

"Lis-LISTEN TO ME! We don't have to fight! PLEASE, I have—"

"Shut UP already!" The man yells, hitting her in the hip. Another scream.

Sans watches his mother reel on the ground, chips of bone from her broken arm clicking on the tile when it falls. All he can do is hold still and grip Papyrus tightly. He's so scared he can't even make a noise. It's all so surreal… This man is killing his mother. But he can't help her…

"Get OFF OF ME!" Vrinda screams at the top of her lungs, her yellow magic blasting the human into the back wall where cigarette boxes go flying and glass rains down on him. She stands up and pants, magic bursting from her hands and lights half of the building up.

"Fine. You wanna fight, you freak?! You want to kill a monster who's never done anything to you?! FINE! We'll do this your way then!" Sharp broken bones appear from thin air and float beside her. She lifts her hands and the bones go flying at the guy. The man dodges most of them by rolling out of the way, but one gets him in the thigh. He yelps and stands up quickly so he can use his own magic. White magic surrounds the humans bat and he swings, a white blade flying in the air. Vrinda only just misses it, her yellow dress getting a cut by her ribs. She retaliates and sends more bones flying in crazy directions. A white magical barrier surrounds the human and it protects him, the bones splitting into a billion pieces.

"Hurry up and die, damn you!" The man yells.

"You first!" Vrinda screams while sending another huge wave of magic. It's weak but it's still strong enough to crack the human's small barrier.

"If I'm going, then I'm taking you with me!" The human's magic bubbles up around his whole body and it only grows and grows and grows like a tsunami. Vrinda's eyes widen and she steps back a few feet. What the hell is this? It's going to crush her! No! The boys! She uses all of her magic to make a square barrier as strong as it can be and she pushes hard with a shout.

The two magic sources collide and explode, the entire top of the gas station being blown apart. Vrinda is hit hard and then sent flying through metal tables and chairs through the front window of the store and into the dirt and grass outside. She doesn't move.

Sans watches horrified. The noise alone shocks him and Papyrus into stunned silence. He was under the counter so luckily the blast didn't get him or Papyrus too badly... But they were blown back several feet, and a big piece of wood hits Sans on the right side of his face. It hurts so bad and his hand jets up to hold it. It reminds him suddenly of Gaster's eye. Is his eye going to crack too?!

The human pants, obviously never having used so much magic before. He sees Vrinda just beginning to stir and groan in the grass and he walks towards her. Once he makes it to her, he slowly puts his foot on her skull and presses a little.

"Now. Would you just. Hold. Still?"

Vrinda knows this is it… She can already feel her soul quivering behind her ribs. Things are becoming blurry. But, she can't fade just yet. She can hear Papyrus screaming and crying suddenly from inside the store. The human looks in that direction. No! No no no no! She lifts her hand and uses the rest of her magic which faintly covers her hand. She's never done this right before so she just hopes it works. "Please stay safe my boys." She thinks to herself. The human looks down at her using magic and panics. He lifts up his foot and stomps down on her head as hard as he can.

()

In the blink of an eye Sans sees that his location has changed. He's outside now, sitting at the base of a tree. Papyrus continues to cry and flail his limbs around, trying to break free of the red scarf swaddling him tightly. Sans gives him a small nudge.

"Papyrus, shush, look. Look, we're outside!" He whispers loudly. Papyrus looks around, knowing the word "outside" and sees trees. He hears a river near them and it sooths him. Sans looks around too. How did he and Papyrus get there? He stands up and quietly peeks behind the tree. The gas station is pretty far away to his right. It's only a small red line and some shiny broken glass now. His mom moved him here? But how? Why?... Sans squints and sees the tiny figure of the human from just now stepping away from a pile in front of him. The yellow dress blows lightly in a breeze.

He suddenly feels sick to his stomach… His dad's gone… and now his…. his mom? Is his mom gone too? Sans' stomach starts doing flips. No way. No way! This can't be real! He and Papyrus are alone now?... They're alone… His mommy is dead…

Sans leaves from behind the tree and stares at the scene. It's so small he can't make it out very well. But his mom's dress laying there with dust inside of it is crystal clear… He can't deal with this… He can't deal with this! Sans makes a run for it with Papyrus in his arms, an end of his moms red scarf trailing behind them a little.

Smoke. There's a bunch of smoke coming from somewhere. Yelling and metal clanking and magical sounds are echoing in the air. It's the town they were just staying in. Sans wonders if he should go back… It doesn't sound good. How can he sit here and do nothing while everyone else is fighting? He wants his mommy… He wants his daddy…

One set of footsteps runs up to Sans.

"Hey kid!" A human man says. It's the human man that killed his mother… Sans turns around quickly to see him with wide eyes. The man realizes they're skeleton monsters and he stops dead in his tracks. His eyes are a little wide… Skeleton monsters. The human can hear in his head some of Vrinda's words. "Please! I have—"… Two kids. She was going to say she had two kids… What has he done?... That baby crying that he couldn't find in the store. It was HER baby…

Sans take the opportunity of the man not moving to run for it. He's not very fast at all but he sprints for it. The only place he knows is the town. Surely he can find someone there to keep him and Papyrus… But wait, if he gets close to them, won't they just die too? Sans slows a little. But he hears another pair of footsteps running at him. Not the humans', but a familiar one. It scares him though so he runs quickly. Purple magic surrounds him and lifts him in the air.

"SANS WAIT!" Someone calls. Sans' eyes snap open from their terrified closed position and he looks around. Familiar purple magic that would throw him in the air sometimes.

Large arms surround him and Papyrus and hug them closely. It's Gaster!

"SANS, PAPYRUS THANK GOD I FOUND YOU! ARE YOU OKAY? LET ME LOOK AT YOU." Gaster, turns his boys around and holds them closely. He can see that Sans has some damage to his right eye, and that the scarf swaddling a very scared Papyrus is ripped.

"MY POOR BOYS… TELL ME SANS, WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER?" Gaster seems pretty banged up himself. His clothes are torn, revealing some black and purple plasma that makes up his form. It's transparent and his skeleton can be seen inside. His hands are chipped all over and the thin bottom crack on his eye has gotten longer.

Sans can't speak. How can he tell his dad that his mom is gone?... How is he supposed to say it?...

"SANS?... WHERE IS YOUR MOM?" Sans can hear the slight change in his dad's voice. It's fear. Panic. Sans just gulps and points in the direction of the store. Gaster doesn't feel good… Sans isn't speaking. Why won't he just say it?

Gaster turns around and starts to walk towards a gas station… He can see the roof is blown off and the windows are broken out. He and everyone else heard a huge explosion, but no one was really sure what it was. It was the thing that helped Gaster escape from a cluster of fighting monsters and humans while everyone was distracted for half a second.

He notices something familiar though. A yellow dress laying on the ground. Gaster stops walking. He just stares wide eyed and doesn't move an inch… His wife's dress… Dust. Gaster carefully sets Sans down with Papyrus without ever taking his eyes away from the clothing. Sans watches his daddy walk slowly over to the pile of dust… His heart aches…

"VRINDA?" Gaster says quietly, as if the dust will answer. Slow steps, slow steps. Once he gets up to the dress he just stares silently. The dust is in the shape of Vrinda's silhouette. Everything that's ever happened to him starts to flood back.

Vrinda that dumb city girl strolls right into his dusty village and all Gaster can do is sass her. He helps her family and makes a lot of eye contact with her while he works. She always seemed interested in what he was doing before he looked at her and she'd give him a glare. The memory of the two sewing her scarf and laughing and having a great time float by. They talked more and more and finally they told each other how much they liked the other. It was the best feeling in the world. He was so filled with love. The two told each other every single day that they loved each other for years. Getting married was amazing. It was a gathering of the entire village. The two held each other close every day and every night, just lying there loving each other and reveling in the others presence. Even when they were chased out of their home with their first born they would all stay together and sing the others praises. Papyrus was born and it seemed to bring them even closer together somehow.

And now Vrinda's dusted form lays in front of him. She was clearly hurt before she was killed. Her dress is ripped and burned in some places.

Gaster's knees become weak and he falls to them. He reaches forward with shaking hands and goes to pick up some of her dust. But his hands stop. He leans forward and places each hand on either sides of the dress where his wife's ribs would be.

"VRINDA?" He says again. This time he reaches for the sides of the dress. He picks it up and watches the small grey and white particles slip to the ground….

Gaster didn't get to say goodbye. He didn't get to tell her he loved her. They were just…. torn apart. She was scared when he saw her last. She was scared and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop the two from getting separated and he couldn't stop those humans from hurting his family. He wasn't there when this place exploded and he wasn't here to stop someone from killing his wife.

Gaster is unable to stop the first sob that comes from his mouth. He hugs the dress close to his chest and finally can't contain his grief. Huge deep sobs push their way out and giant tears cloud Gaster's vision completely. His entire world crashes around him. All of the support pillars that held him up are crumbling…

Sans watches from afar the devastation of this reality. He holds Papyrus tightly and hugs him close, starting to cry as well. He can't watch… It hurts so much…

Gaster curls in on himself and the dress and sobs hard. This is too much… It's too much. Gaster swears his can feel his soul splitting in two. The deep, thick, heavy feeling in his chest hurts and he just can't believe that he wasn't there. He wasn't HERE! His beloved wife is really and truly gone and it's his fault for not being strong enough. If only he were here! This loss is agony on his very existence. It's torture. It's actual torture sitting here clinging to what was once his precious Vrinda.

A small pair of feet slowly walk up to Gaster's side. When a small hand touches his arm, he looks up from the dust and dirt and sees his children. Their big, sad, tearful eyes stare up at him. They need him…

"Daddy?..." Sans says nearly under his breath. "I'm… sorry you're crying…" Is all the three year old can say. Gaster puts a hand to his own face to try and cover up the tears. He can't even hide his sorrow from his children. He's so damn weak!

"SANS… DO YOU… UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?" Gaster says, unable to keep his voice from shaking. Sans nods a few times.

"Yes… Mommy isn't here anymore… She's with my Grandmas and Grandpas now… right?" Even saying it brings fresh blue tears to Sans' eyes.

Gaster has to be strong… He has to be a father right now. He has to disassociate and do what must be done. For his small children.

"YES… SHE'S WITH THEM ALL NOW… AND… I KNOW HOW PROUD SHE WAS OF YOU FOR BEING HER STRONG BOY. YOU AND PAPYRUS BOTH…"

"Are we going to see her again?..."

Gaster carefully folds the dress into a square, only able to keep a small bit of her dust inside. How can he answer such a question…? If he says yes, Sans might constantly be scared of dying. But if he says no, then Sans will start screaming.

"MAYBE. I'D LIKE TO THINK SO, WOULDN'T YOU?" He looks back at Sans again and gives his boy the smallest smile. Sans nods… Gaster shifts his body to pick his sons up and then stands, putting his wife's dress under his arm. He steps back from the silhouetted dust of his beloved and gives it another long look…

"I LOVE YOU VRINDA…" He says quietly.

"I love you mommy." Sans repeats.

Gaster forces himself to turn his back on the dust and walk away… Sans clings to his brother who's been oddly silent this whole time and to his dad's tearing shirt. Another wave of realization hits Sans and he starts to sob into his dad's chest. Of course Papyrus doesn't understand, but so much is happening and he doesn't get it. He starts crying too. Gaster can only listen and hold them close as he walks away.

()

The village full of fighting gets closer. Gaster wonders what he's going to do… He has to help, but he has his sons who need him more than anyone… A shadow passes over them. Gaster looks up and sees Civetta his owl friend. The girl looks down and sees him and makes a nose dive before spreading her wings and stopping midair then landing on her feet.

"Wingdings! I'm so glad I found you! I was looking all over! Hey where—" Gaster quickly shakes his head and gives her a small look that she immediately recognizes as "Don't bring it up." She's seen the face many times during their friendship. But the meaning behind this look is deep. She can see that all three boys have been crying their eyes out. Vrinda isn't there…. Civetta just stays quiet for a while…

"CIVETTA, WHAT'S GOING ON IN TOWN RIGHT NOW?" Gaster says to quickly change the subject.

"O-oh! Well, we seem to be winning for now. But I heard some of the humans talking about back up and reinforcements. King Asgore and Queen Toriel said that once we get the humans numbers down more, we'll make a break for it to go North East… We've uhm… Well, out of four thousand we have three thousand left. Everyone is fighting really hard right now. I was too, but I couldn't find you guys so I went looking…" Civetta rubs her feathered arm awkwardly and can only barely hold back tears. Her friend is gone… It all happened so fast.

"WHAT ABOUT THE HUMANS NUMBERS?"

"Well… they came at us with what appears to be three thousand. I guess they figured they'd only need that many… But they're down to one thousand five hundred… That's my guess after looking from the sky."

"LET'S MAKE IT ZERO." Gaster says. Civetta looks Gaster in the eye and can see a faint purple glow… He means it. And Civetta knows when to get out of his way.

"Y-Yeah… But what about them?" She glances down at the children really fast and then back up to him. Gaster thinks… His sons NEED him right now…

"IF WE CAN DRIVE THE HUMANS TO RETREAT FOR A WHILE THEN WE CAN ESCAPE FOR A LITTLE WHILE… SO FOR NOW LET'S JUST CHASE THEM AWAY… HOPEFULLY IT'LL BE AS EASILY DONE AS IT IS SAID."

"I agree. Uhm… I think that for now you guys should just stay out here. The humans won't be coming this way. I'll tell the king our plans and hopefully his listens to them. If they come to pass, I'll come find you guys again okay?"

"YEAH… THANK YOU CIVETTA." Gaster nods. Civetta stares at her friend sadly. The poor guy… the poor kids!... She jumps in the air and flies back to the fighting. Gaster turns and walks off, not really paying attention to where he's going. Away from the loud noises and fighting, that's all he knows.

Sans finally looks up for a second and then points.

"Daddy… Over there. That's where mommy put me and Papyrus." Gaster's taken from his walking trance and he looks at where his son's small hand is pointing. He walks over to it and looks.

"SHE PUT YOU HERE?" He's too nervous to ask him exactly what he means for fear of starting another crying session. But Sans talks anyway.

"Yeah. Pap and I were hiding under the counter. But Papyrus started crying and then mommy's magic put us here. It was really weird." What on EARTH does that mean… Mommy's magic put us here…. Wait… Wait a second. Did she finally do it?

Gaster and Vrinda were working on their magic constantly while they were on the run. Gaster could teleport some things and Vrinda wanted in on such convenient magic. So he would teach her when he was able. She couldn't do very large objects. A piece of paper, a pen, a potted plant. She was doing pretty well, but it would suck a lot of magic away from her. She just wasn't born with the skill needed to teleport larger objects. But it looks like at the last minute she was able to teleport their sons to safety…. Vrinda finally did it.

Gaster sits down with the boys and sits Sans next to him. He takes Papyrus from his brother's arms carefully and holds him up.

"PAPYRUS, YOU'RE SO QUIET… CAN YOU MAYBE SMILE FOR DADDY?" He brings Papyrus in for a big kiss to his head and he gets two small hands bapping the side of his face. Papyrus coos. He seems to think that everything is better now because his daddy is there and he's smiling. So everything MUST be alright! Papyrus finally wriggles around and laughs. Gaster brings Pap in again and removes the scarf from around him, allowing the baby to stretch finally. This makes him VERY happy. He flails around in Gaster's lap until he rolls out onto his belly and starts to crawl around. He doesn't go more than a couple feet from his family though.

Sans looks at the scarf in his dad's hands and then up at his father's face. He's staring at some fading red thread. Sans wonders why. What is it about the thread?... He can't find enough energy to ask.

Hours pass and morning breaks. Several humans ended up turning tail for now and running away just like Gaster had hoped. There are a few more humans left alive than he'd like… Sans and Papyrus have fallen asleep in Gaster's arms. Gaster himself is so tired, but he can't sleep. Every time he closes his eyes another memory will pop up and kick the sleep right out of him. He hears something overhead. It must be Civetta.

The owl lands on her talons.

"Gaster!" She calls. The weary skeleton stands up with his boys and walks out from behind the tree.

"CIVETTA. LOOKS LIKE OUR PAPER THIN IDEA WORKED IN THE END."

"Yeah. We did pretty well. There's still a lot of loss… but we started to seriously outnumber the humans and they were getting tired. So uh… we made it sorta… for now… How are… you guys holding up and stuff?" Such a subject… She never thought she'd have to speak to her friend about something like this.

"PAPYRUS IS BETTER THAN I EXPECTED, BUT SANS ISN'T DOING VERY WELL. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE WHAT HE SAW…."

"And you?"

"SHITTY." A rare curse from Gaster. Civetta just nods. She turns around and starts walking towards what's left of the group and Gaster follows. Not another word is said on their way back.

When they break from the trees, they can see to the right the monsters picking up the pieces of their thrice shattered lives. Some weapons are broken, some monsters are injured heavily and the town has been set on fire. The humans seem to like doing that… There are piles of dust everywhere. All shapes and sizes. Family members cry over some of the piles.

"CIVETTA… CAN YOU PLEASE WATCH THE BOYS WHILE I GET TO WORK HERE?" Gaster says. Civetta looks at him and the boys in his arms.

"But… shouldn't you get some sleep?"

"I'LL SLEEP WHEN EVERYONE IS DOING A BIT BETTER. WE DO HAVE TO LEAVE HERE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND IT'S BEST IF EVERYONE FEELS AS GOOD AS THEY CAN FOR TOMORROWS WAVE. I KNOW THEY'LL BE BACK WITH THOUSANDS MORE… SO I HAVE TO DO THIS."

"Gaster—"

"PLEASE CIVETTA… I HAVE TO KEEP BUSY…" He looks over at his friend sadly. Civetta sighs and holds out her arms.

"Fine. But when you finish PLEASE come back… They'll want you when they wake up."

Gaster hands his sons over carefully to his feathery friend and steps back with a nod.

"YEAH…" He turns around and walks away, waving to a few people and already calling out orders to line up if they're injured. Civetta watches him go and just shakes her head. She looks down at the boys and then snuggles them close, apologizing under her breath as she walks off to rest.

()

Gaster heals people as best as he can, getting nods and thank yous and tearful hugs. Everyone notices that the second doctor isn't there… She must have been one of the casualties. It explains Gaster's lack of… well, his normal self.

Finally he finishes and goes to find Civetta. She's cooped up with his sons that are still sleeping, holding them close and keeping them warm with her poofy brown feathers. Gaster takes this time to sit and close his eyes finally. But every time he thinks he might fall asleep, the reality of his new life hits him like a truck. Vrinda isn't there to talk to him anymore…. He pulls out her dress from under his arm. He never let it go. Gaster brings it in front of him still perfectly folded and he runs his hand across the fabric. The buttons are so old… He didn't get to buy her any new clothes.

"OH VRINDA… WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO WITHOUT YOU?" He whispers to himself. After all the crying he's done, he figured there were no tears left. But a fresh wave of tears start to spill from his eyes. He clutches the dress close again and curls in on himself, knees to his chest.

It's only until Sans wakes him up that Gaster realizes he'd actually fallen asleep. The sun was coming up and peeking through the wood. Gaster looks down at Sans who's sat next to him and cuddled himself into his dad's side as much as he was able to. The small little skeleton looks up at Gaster and actually gives him a small smile. He returns it.

"MORNING SANS… DID CIVETTA KEEP YOU WARM?"

"M-hm."

"GOOD, I'M GLAD." Gaster puts his legs down and then picks Sans up and gives him a tight loving hug. Sans wraps his arms around his dad's neck and hugs him back.

"I love you daddy." The boy says, gripping the back of Gaster's shirt and rubbing his cheekbones on his shoulder. Gaster kisses his sons' skull and rubs his back.

"I LOVE YOU TOO, SANS."

They sit quietly for about ten minutes until Papyrus wakes up, who then wakes up Civetta with his movement. They all leave and eat with several others outside. Everyone's face has a story to tell. It's easy to pick out which monsters lost someone… The morning is quiet and very cold. Monsters huddle together for warmth and Gaster is glad he and his boys are all skeletons…

After everyone packs up and readies themselves, the entire group begins to walk. Gaster has been relieved of his defense squad duties to watch over his sons. Just like his wife, He has Papyrus in what's left of Vrinda's scarf and Sans in his free arm. Many hours of walking heat everyone up pretty nicely. The sun is shining on everyone. Not a cloud in the sky.

"Daddy?" Sans asks quietly. Gaster hums in response.

"Are we going to be okay?" Gaster looks down now at his son and gives him a confident smile.

"WE ARE GOING TO BE OKAY. I WON'T LET ANYONE HURT YOU OR PAPYRUS EVER."

"Daddy…. Please don't go. Like Mama did. Please don't turn to dust…" Sans is almost too quiet to hear, but his pleas ring very clear in Gaster's mind.

"I WON'T. I SWEAR IT, I WON'T EVER LEAVE YOU BOYS LIKE THAT. YOUR OLD DAD WILL BE AROUND FOR A LOOOONG TIME."

Sans nods silently and clings to his dad… When he moves his head to rest his chin on Gaster's shoulder, he sees something behind the group.

"Daddy… I see them."

"WHAT?" Gaster turns around quickly. Several other monsters turn around too.

Behind the group come the humans again, attacking from behind this time. Kill the stragglers and work their way up to the stronger monsters.

"SON OF A-…" The monsters in the back of the group both groan and scream, running forward quickly. Gaster turns and runs with everyone else. But not out of fear. He's looking for Civetta. His eyes dart around looking for his feathered friend and finally he spots her ahead of him. He dashes for her and yells over the noise of running, terrified and crying monsters.

"CIVETTA. I NEED YOU TO TAKE THESE TWO AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN. FLY SO THEY CAN'T GET YOU EASILY!"

"What?!" Civetta yells. She takes one look at Gaster though and knows he's going to do what he wants if she likes it or not. So she takes Papyrus from around Gaster's torso and then grabs Papyrus. She gives them a toss in the air and then jumps up, catches them in her feet talons and flies off quickly.

"Daddy!" Sans yells, holding out a hand and flailing a little.

"I MADE A PROMISE REMEMBER!? I'M GOING TO KEEP IT!" Sans watches his dad fade away on the ground. The scene is made clear. Half of the monster group run away and the other half linger back to fight. He sees his dad being joined with many others. An old tortoise man, a fire monster, dogs and many others. The humans are larger in number and a rainbow of color starts flaring from their side, ready to attack.

Gaster stands ready, taking a deep breath. He's going to do his best to make good on what he told his son. Don't die. He has to hold them back so his people and children can escape…

A tortoise monster runs up next to him with a giant hammer.

"Listen son, if you have a death wish you'd better get it over with!"

"I COULD SAY THE SAME TO YOU. GERSON WAS IT?" Gaster says, taking a look at the old man. Gerson is already quite old, but he's heard gossip about this man. They call him the Hammer of Justice.

"Darn tootin'! Think you can keep up kid?! Gyehehe!" The old man cackles.

"Ah now don't get me wrong, I don't LIKE killin'. But someone's gotta do it, ain't that right Doc?" With a glint in his old eyes, Gaster can tell this guy has seen a lot in his long life.

"YEAH…" A flame monster joins the two of them and then more and more monsters run up. Once the humans get close to them, the monsters charge.

So many bodies clash and run into each other. Metal against metal clang and reverberate in the air, arrows fly, spears are thrown from both sides, even gunshots are heard. The sound of magic permeates the entire area too. Fire, lighting, chunks of earth and rocks fly around. Sometimes the magic colliding will explode and send everyone near it soaring.

Gaster's purple magic bursts from his one good eye and bones start flying and stabbing humans left and right. They fall and he jumps over them to the next humans. He wastes no time bringing out the big guns. Two scary dog skulls, the blasters, float in the air and make terrifying noises when the magic charges up. Humans see them and start to run. But giant purple and white beams scream from the blasters and obliterate them, bones and all. Even some monsters look at Gaster and his weapons and are shocked. The size of them, the strength! The amount of magic coming from them… Just how strong is this damn guy? It's almost like he's a… a boss monster or something.

Humans run and try to avoid the giant skulls and their master, but they can't get away fast enough. The skulls chase them, biting their heads off one by one as if they were bobbing for apples. Sometimes a brave human will dare to go near Gaster to try and surprise attack him, but the doctor turns and uses a small purple magic beam to slice their heads clean off of their shoulders. By now he's left a trail of blood and bodies behind him.

What freaks a lot of humans and monsters out is how freakishly calm he appears to be. He doesn't LOOK angry or full of absolute murderous rage, and he doesn't look happy or joyful that he's killing all of these humans. He just looks… neutral. Like he's shut everything out and is just focusing on his job. The only thing that gives away any emotion (to the monsters at least) is the intense blazing magic from his eye. He nearly becomes a black shadow in contrast to all the light exploding from his devilish pets.

The fighting lasts for a long time. It starts to get dark. Even with all of the strongest monsters fighting, their numbers are fading quickly. Everyone is running out of magic. But looking around at the human fighters, Gaster can spot at least six or seven of them that are still totally full of magic… How? If MONSTERS are low on magic, then how are those damn humans still full on theirs? Did they only join recently? Or maybe… they're REALLY strong?

A sharp pain stabs through Gaster's back while he isn't focusing and it's dragged all the way down to his hip. He shouts and arches away from the pain and turns around. But he doesn't see an adult. He sees a human child with blond hair and a machete that's nearly their size.

"A CHILD?" Gaster says out loud in utter amazement. Why is a KID here? They seem ready for battle though. Not an ordinary child it seems.

While he's preoccupied with the child, an adult human bum rushes him and tackles him to the ground. Gaster's blasters disappear.

"You damn freak!" The human screams. They punch Gaster several times in a row before Gaster can use any of his… uh... his magic? Is he out of magic? God in heaven he's out of usable magic… And he isn't physically strong enough now after using so much magic at once to get this damn human off of him! But he tries dammit! Gaster swings his right fist into the humans face several times right back, but his wrists are grabbed and pinned to the ground. From above him he sees the child with the machete walking up to his head, charging their machete with light lavender magic.

"Hurry up you stupid kid, kill it!" The human screams at the child. The youngster raises their machete to stab down, and they thrust it right into his right eye. Gaster screams and struggles against the human on top of him. He can't get away! No no no dammit he made a promise! He PROMISED his son that he wouldn't die! But he has no magic to protect himself with! Oh god this PAIN! The child rocks the machete back and forward until the blade end gets caught in the crack going up his eye and they can't get it out. They pull and stab, pull and stab trying to free the weapon from their enemy's eye. Gaster can't believe the amount of pain he's in right now.

"Shut the hell up!" The adult shouts. He stabs two knives in the ground in Gaster's hand holes to keep him from moving and surrounds his own hands with magic and starts to choke Gaster. Being half skeleton, choking wouldn't normally work. But choking with magic is a whole other story. This human seems to be experienced in this…

Gaster struggles and shouts silently. The kid finally manages to get their weapon out of his damn eye hole and reel up to swing down again, but a large hammer completely smashes them from the side and sends them flying. A burst of flame magic and white fur crash into the human on top of Gaster and sends him flying too. Gaster gasps for air now that the hands are off of him and he coughs hard. Even rolling to his side is a chore right now. He thought for sure he was a goner…. He almost broke his promise…

"Doctor Gaster!" Asgore shouts. He bends over on one armored knee and stares at Gaster with concern.

"How are you bleeding if you're a skeleton?" He asks suddenly. Gaster can't believe this imbecile. But he can't find the words or the breath yet to answer him. Asgore rolls the doctor to his side and then sits him up.

"Can you at least nod if you're alright?" Gaster ponders this… He almost died. And…. He's very seriously considering falling back. Not for himself, but for his children… So Gaster shakes his head "no", doing his best to clear up his blurry vision. His right eye is even MORE cracked now… When will this eye stop being targeted for heaven's sake?

"Alright, I'll send you back. You've done enough for now. Thank you Gaster." Asgore says. He waves someone over and then rushes off to keep fighting. A flame monster rushes over to Gaster and grabs his arm, pulling him up to his shaking feet. They walk Gaster to the back and point to the east where the other non-fighting monsters are. They can't help him, they've got to go back. Gaster understands perfectly and nods a little. He turns and walks back… Part of him feels shame that he had to leave the way he did. But another part is patting him on the back for knowing when it's time to quit and go to his children. He feels a little less bad having to leave when he sees several other monsters walking back a few yards away from him. Gaster stumbles forward until his falls against a tree, clinging to it so he won't fall…

Vrinda… He hopes he killed the human that murdered his wife. If he did anything he hopes that it was avenging his Vrinda… That's part of his excuse anyway. A bigger part of him knows that he was venting his anger and suffering onto the humans. He doesn't feel bad though. And that KID. That child! Are the humans so desperate that they'll just take kids with some decent magic and send them to war? Unbelievable. Humans really are the worst…

After several more minutes of slow pained walking, Gaster sees the group of monsters unable to fight. Finally… He sees Civetta sitting with Sans and Papyrus, writing some complicated math in the dirt that the boys just take as weird drawings. But the second Sans sees a figure in all black walking towards them, his head snaps over to look. He gasps and stands up and runs.

"Daddy!" Sans screams and almost trips on a branch to get over to his father. Gaster falls to his knees and holds his arms out just in time to catch his son who crashes into him. It's one of the better pains he's felt in life.

"Dadadadadada!" Papyrus says. He stands up carefully and toddles over to his daddy and lands in his other arm once he gets there.

"MY BOYS, I'M BACK. SEE SANS? I TOLD YOU I WOULDN'T LEAVE YOU." Sans just smiles and nods quickly, hugging his dad as tightly as he can. He's so happy that his daddy made it, just like he said he would!

Civetta runs over and takes a good look at her childhood friend. His clothes are burned in several places, his neck bones appear to be…. Bruised? There's black blood coming from some wounds in places she can't place because of the black clothing. His eye's crack has gotten wider and looks more jagged than before. And she can feel that his magic is all gone, save for the reserve that keeps him alive really.

"Thank goodness you're back, Gaster… I'm very very happy to see you. You don't look so good though." She says. Gaster shakes his head a little.

"I'LL LIVE… BUT YOU WON'T BELIEVE SOME OF THE THINGS I SAW CIVETTA… HUUHH…" He leans forward a little too much…

"Daddy?" Sans says, panic filling him. His daddy is acting weird and… is that blood coming from his mouth? Gaster coughs a few times, covering his mouth with his elbow. Lots of blood. How irritating. If only he'd gotten a little less from his mom and more from his dad in the flesh department…

"Ooooh no!" Civetta says, finally seeing the problem. That huge rip in his back from what looks like a giant knife wound?

"Doesn't ANYONE here know healing magic besides Gaster?" She calls to the group of people behind her.

Gaster's vision gets extra blurry and he feels light headed. He doesn't notice for a few seconds, but he's wobbling and is unable to hold himself up. It feels like he's underwater almost. It's kinda nice in a weird way. Everything goes black and the world stops spinning. The only thing he hears is a small thud that he can't quite place before he loses consciousness.


	7. Chapter 7: Underground (end)

Echoing voices are everywhere. Some are panicking and others are telling the loud ones to quiet down. It's cold out… It feels light night time… Night time?

Gaster opens his sore eyes and confirms that it's dark out. He stares up at the black and blue sky. The stars and moon though are especially beautiful and bright tonight he thinks… With soreness, Gaster tries to roll over with a grunt.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Sans asks, suddenly popping his head into Gaster's line of sight right over his head. Gaster blinks a few times tiredly.

"SANS… I SUPPOSE SO."

Papyrus wobbles over on his unsteady legs and tackles his dad's head on the ground. Sans gasps and picks his baby brother up off their father's face.

"No Papyrus, you're gonna hurt 'im!" Sans scolds and sets Papyrus down next to him on his feet.

"DA…." Papyrus whines. Walking towards the family is the owl monster, Civetta. She perches herself next to Gaster in the cool grass as he tries to sit up.

"I'm very glad you're awake. The boys were scared…" Civetta says quietly. She looks at her friend as he struggles to get up off of the hard earth. Gaster finally gets into a sitting position, only to be tackled by Sans and Papyrus directly in his chest.

"OOF! AH MY BOYS… I'M SO SORRY I SCARED YOU AGAIN. I'M GLAD I RETURNED WHEN I DID…" He kisses both of their heads and holds them close. The boys snuggle up to him and latch on like adorable little cuffs.

"It looked like things weren't going very well when you returned."

"THEY WEREN'T… TRUTHFULLY, IF NOT FOR ASGORE, FLAMEHEART AND GERSON…" Gaster starts to remember now. The large human man holding him down and choking him. The child that slashed him very deeply on his back and kept stabbing his eye with their machete… God it was agonizing… Even the memory of it brings back a small twinge of pain in his eye… Wait a second.

"IS THERE ANOTHER HEALER AROUND THAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT? I FEEL RATHER FINE FOR… WHAT HAPPENED." Gaster looks around and then at his friend a bit confused. Civetta clears her throat and avoids eye contact. She knows how Gaster feels about this subject.

"Queen Toriel."

Gaster's eyes go wide. That stuck up naïve queen?

"You collapsed and I was shouting for help. Toriel was off healing others when she heard me, but she rushed right over to fix you up. I noticed that it took her a rather long time to heal you though. She kept acting surprised too. It was strange… But she did a good job. I…" Civetta looks down a bit… then slightly over at Gaster.

"I wasn't sure you were going to…uh…" Gaster nods and understands.

He stays quiet for a while and rubs his children's skulls and backs. The queen actually healed him. He didn't think she had such magic. Not everyone has it, or is good at it if they DO… If Toriel didn't help him he might have been dusted…. It hurts his pride. It makes him feel like she's almost… replacing-… Gaster shakes his head. Not the time.

"I'M SORRY. I WON'T BE DOING THAT AGAIN. I MADE IT OUT ALIVE AND I PLAN TO KEEP IT THAT WAY…"

"You promise?" Sans' quiet voice comes from Gaster's chest. Gaster looks down at his son when Sans lifts his head to stare at his father sadly.

"You PROMISE you won't leave us again?" Sans says again.

"I PROMISE SANS. I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU TWO EVER EVER AGAIN… AND I'M SORRY I LEFT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT NO MORE. YOU AND PAPYRUS ARE MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD." Gaster hugs his boys tighter again and they return the action. Civetta watches them and smiles a little. She sure hopes Gaster is telling the truth… She'll have to make sure he keeps that promise if he even steps a single skeletal toe out of line.

A few hours pass in partial silence. In the distance are the wails of humans and monsters being injured or dying. They're horrible sounds… The clash of metal and woosh of magic; war shouts and cries of those who lost a loved one. During it all, monsters who had no choice but to live and retreat return to the pathetic base group of the already defeated. Some of them come to Gaster and he does his best to heal them with the magic he has. Luckily, Toriel is making her own rounds, healing those Gaster can't. He hates it.

The night is ending now, and the monsters who were still fighting finally had no choice but to surrender to the humans… Asgore told everyone to surrender rather reluctantly, to some monster's surprises. The defeated monsters are corralled by the humans into one big group. It's all that's left of them… 1100 monsters.

"Walk." Says one hooded human. Clearly a very strong magician. The monsters stand their ground for a moment and wait to see what Asgore does, but when a second and third strong magical human walk up, they start to falter a bit.

"Walk." The hooded human repeats and points to the west. Asgore knows he must take the lead… So he turns and begins to walk with his head held high, Toriel at his side with her chin up. Monsters begin to turn and walk defeated after their King and Queen. Gaster picks Sans and Papyrus up in his arms and walks. Civetta stays close, just in case the humans try to pull anything on her friend and his children…

The walk is long. Humans walk next to the group of monsters, pinning them against the mountain with no escape.

"Daddy, where are we going?" Sans asks. Gaster looks around…

"I'M NOT SURE. BUT WE'RE CLOSE TO MOUNT EBOTT." Sans looks at his dad confused. He doesn't know anything about the mountains or even where he is.

"AH, UH… WELL SEE, THERE ARE THREE MOUNTAINS THAT WE'RE WALKING NEXT TO. THE ONE WE'RE GETTING CLOSEST TOO IS THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE, CALLED MOUNT EBOTT."

Sans nods a little and looks all around him. The mountains on his father's right, and the humans fencing everyone in on the left. He looks up at his dad who is trying to keep a straight face, but Sans knows his daddy. Gaster is upset and he's keeping a wary eye on the humans.

"Are we going to be okay daddy?" Sans says now. Gaster looks down at his son a little surprised… But he remembers what his sons have been through… Of course such a question would pop up. Gaster smiles to try and reassure him and kisses each of their heads.

"WE'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS AND NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE, YOU BOYS WILL ALWAYS HAVE ME AND I'LL PROTECT YOU." Sans stares at his dad closely… and then nods, resting his head on Gaster's shoulder. Gaster wishes there was some way he could hug his boys tighter and closer than ever. He intends on keeping his promise this time for real. He WILL protect them and he WILL stay with them.

The humans start guiding the monster group up to the mountain. It's hard for most, still being mostly wounded. It takes forever to finally see where they're going. It's a small opening to a cave. Every monster is forced into the cave, some being pushed and some being dragged inside if they resist.

This cave appears to be similar to the first one they all lived in. There appears to be a small city inside, old and turning a weird lavender like color. Broken pillars hold up broken roofs and some rocks to stop a cave in. There are flowers and weeds growing through most of the cracks.

Asgore stays by the entrance to wait for his people to be filed in as peacefully as possible and then waits to see what the humans have to say. Toriel stands next to him with a sad face…

Once everyone is inside, Gaster watches Asgore standing in front of the humans to talk. He almost can't bear to watch his King speaking to those damn bags of flesh like they didn't just slaughter the majority of their entire race…

"Asgore," says the cloaked human. Many monsters look at the humans with disgust. They aren't even properly addressing him as "KING Asgore!"

"You wanted to resolve this peacefully. So we won't kill you…" They say. A second, third, fourth and fifth human walk up to the first one.

"That's right. We're going to let nature take its course with you lot." The fourth human says with a sneer. A sixth and finally seventh human walk up, one of them rolling their shoulders. Seven humans. Every monster can see the magic radiating off of them…. They're so strong. The strongest ones they've ever seen. So why have they all gathered at the entrance like this? What do they mean they're going to let nature take its course? What are they planning?

Asgore is quiet. What…. what is he supposed to say to that?

"Stop talking!" The third human says. Their colored soul floats out in front of them. The other six humans' souls follow suit. The monsters take a few steps back. Gaster himself takes several steps back and holds his boys tighter and closer, feeling Sans' little arms wrap around his neck.

"It's time to finally do away with you filthy creatures…" The seventh human says. All of the humans lift their hands and huge amounts of magic begins to pour out. Asgore takes a step back. He can't believe the power humans have… They're SO STRONG. Their magical energy is astounding… They're so so SO much stronger than monsters…

"Goodbye, you damn monsters." The second human says.

The seven mages begin to chant, magic spewing from their hands. The monsters can feel it like electricity. The magic goes around the mountain like a huge sheet and surrounds them completely. Some monsters know exactly what's going on… Several monsters rush at the humans to try and stop them, but they run into an invisible wall and fall backwards. A magical human barrier. Toriel rushes to one monster and helps them up.

The strongest looking human comes up and destroys the rocks that made up the entrance and exit to the cave. Rocks tumble down and completely cover up any light from the outside…

Everyone is still now… Everyone is quiet.

Is this real?

Asgore takes another step back finally and looks at where the light used to be. The only sources of light are several fire monsters and a few luminescent monsters.

More monsters rush at the wall and attempt to use their magic. All of the elements, magical weapons, rocks, anything and everything. But nothing can even touch the barrier without fizzling out or crumbling… People begin to panic and yell and even and cry. Sans stars to cry at the panic and holds into his father tightly. When he looks up to hopefully find answers in his eyes, he only sees horror. Terror in his dad's face.

Gaster's arms shake as he holds his sons... This can't be real. They're trapped. Everything has gone so wrong so quickly. First their home on the surface. Their family and friends. Their cave homes and more friends...

His wife... Vrinda, the angel who stayed and loved him and gave him his children... and now this. Now friends and his children and himself... They're all going to die down here in the darkness. His sons won't get to grow up in the light that they deserve to...

"Daddy!" Sans yells, knocking Gaster from his horrified trance. He looks down at Sans and then at Papyrus who has been crying for a while apparently.

"Daddy what's going on?" Sans says again. He watches a lot of monsters pound and punch the barrier, crying and screaming. "Make them stop yelling daddy, they're scaring us!"

Gaster takes a step back from the crowd and bumps into a few people. Finally he wiggles away towards the back with several other monsters who are speechless. Silent. Some even accepting their fate.

For hours, monsters try to beat their way through, but no progress is made. A slow trickle of monsters start to leave what was once an exit and head further in. Sans stares at his dad. His face is so dejected and defeated... Mommy would know what to do. She'd know how to make everyone happy. How to make daddy happy... What would his mommy do?...

"Dad?" Sans says quietly. Gaster moves his tired eyes to look at him.

"What would mom do right now?" An odd question. But Gaster supposes he can't blame Sans for asking. He's doing a pathetic job of keeping calm. But he's so devastated...

"MOM... WOULD TRY TO HELP EVERYONE SHE COULD... AND SHE'D PROBABLY TELL SOME AWFUL PUNS RIGHT NOW..."

"Then go help people."

"I CAN'T. I USED ALL OF MY MAGIC ALREADY... I DON'T KNOW IF I COULD EVEN HEAL A RUG BURN RIGHT NOW." Sans looks at Papyrus who is wide awake, but quiet. What would mommy do... What would mommy do... She'd make puns? Those are like jokes right?... Well, he doesn't know how to make puns yet, so he'll stick with jokes for now.

"What did the mushroom say to the other mushroom?" Sans says. Gaster can't believe this. Something so horrible has happened to them. To them ALL. But his son is trying to make HIM feel better? With a joke he's heard his wife make many times.

"WHAT DID IT SAY?"

"You're a fun guy. Get it? Like fungi!" Sans smiles and hopes that it's funny enough for his dad.

Gaster can't stop a small smile. The light in his son's eyes at telling him a joke is just bright enough to make him feel a little better. He looks so much like his mom...

"GOOD ONE. WHY DID THE QUEEN SPREAD PEANUT BUTTER ON THE ROAD?" He says. Sans' eyes go wide, so excited his dad is participating in the joke-making!

"Why dad?"

"TO GO WITH THE TRAFFIC JAM." Sans laughs. He doesn't getting it entirely since he's never been in a car, but he's heard of traffic jams. He gets it enough to find it funny.

"Nice one." He looks back up at his dad and sees his smile has faded some.

"What's wrong daddy?..." Gaster can't help but think to himself "You have no idea."

"YOU REMEMBER OUR HOME IN THE CAVE WHERE PAPYRUS WAS BORN? WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE PLACE?"

"I remember. I liked it. It was fun."

"THAT'S GOOD... THIS PLACE WILL BE OUR NEW HOME. JUST ANOTHER CAVE LIKE BEFORE... OKAY?"

"Okay." Sans recalls clearly how much he liked it there at the first cave. Papyrus would scream happily when Sans would talk to him and Gaster made him feel safe by patrolling with other monsters and he'd take him to the little markets that were made for the monsters. And his mom would cook... And she'd sing to him when he was scared of storms, sew his clothes when they tore, dance with him when music played, tell him everything would be alright in the end...

Tears begin to swell up again in the child's eyes. It keeps coming in waves, the reality that his mommy was dead now.

"I want mommy back, dad. I want mommy." He cries. He puts his tiny skeleton hands to his sockets and sobs. Gaster tears up and grabs Sans up, putting him on his knee and hugging him tightly with Papyrus.

"I KNOW SANS... I WANT MOMMY BACK TOO..." The family sits there for a long while, their crying echoing that of the other sobbing monsters.

Finally, a flame monster comes over, illuminating their tear stained faces. It's Flameheart. He holds out his hand and offers a look of pity. A quiet, deep, crackling voice comes from where a mouth should be.

"Were moving further in Dr. Gaster. I think you all should come with us." He says. Gaster looks up at him slowly... then nods.

"YEAH. WE'RE COMING." He stands up, hosting his boys with him and follows Flameheart. Gaster is thankful that Papyrus has opted to sleep...

God how is he going to feed his children? Clothe them? Shelter them? The horrible thoughts of them all just turning into dust from starvation or from a stalactite falling on them and crushing them, what if there are pitfalls or something?

The further in everyone gets, it's clear this place used to harbor humans and monsters hundreds of years ago. They're ruins of some old civilization. The bricks are all a weird shade of purple. And more disturbingly, there are a few traps that were set by the inhabitants.

Buttons you have to step on in the correct order to open a door, spikes jut from the ground, nearly stabbing the foot of a poor young dog monster. Rocks that have to be put on a button to keep spikes down and just what Gaster feared, a pitfall. The ground is so cracked and decayed that without knowing the right path, if there even is one, they'll all fall through. A few brave monsters walk and most immediately fall through. But they call up from wherever they've landed to say there's a pattern down below. When the monsters crawl back up through vents, the first monsters lead the way along the right path. Gaster holds onto his sons very closely and is nervous to step on one wrong part and collapse the whole thing. But he and everyone make it out. This is worse than any line to Disneyland.

Eventually the group meet with several spiders. Spider monsters too that already lived down here. Asgore has to explain that now there's no way out of here. But they aren't upset. This was already their home. And so some of the spider monsters lead the rest of the huge group right through. There's a giant hole in one of the walls and it leads right into a huge purple city. It's so big! The monsters are all in awe that huge place was hidden underground. It's like an ant hill, it just keeps going. Asgore and Toriel thank the spiders profusely and everyone eventually disperses to see if there are any livable places for them. Or at least shelter from the stress. And in most of these strange buildings, monsters find homes.

The Royal Family has chosen a small little place just before the city starts so if anyone comes through, their house will be the first one that's visited. Although Gaster is silently unsure WHO exactly they think will be coming. More monsters? Humans? Yeah right…

Gaster picks a place for his boys that's a small family home made of stone. He's actually impressed with how well it's built honestly. When he sets both of his sons down, Papyrus wobbles and then crawls around. Sans on the other hand just stands there. He can picture his mom rushing around, cleaning the place with fervor and being totally deaf to everything but the sounds of her cleaning. Sans can almost smell her cooking and hear her skeletal feet clicking on the concrete of the house, feel her arms around him in a hug. It was only yesterday that she clung to him and Papyrus, protecting them from the humans that were cornering them in the forest…Sans looks down and doesn't move until Gaster takes his hand to look around.

The rooms are just the right size. Gaster told the boys they'd all be sharing one room for a while until they all felt a bit better, and Sans didn't protest. More than anything he didn't want to be alone. To have their home raided once again. To lose anyone else.

The first week of this place was hard to adjust to. Cries from all around still rang out. The loss of loved ones from the fight, the despair of being trapped in here for probably forever, and from hunger. There was no food. Any food had rotted or disintegrated over hundreds of years. Gaster was only able to feed his sons from a bag of wheat grain that wasn't that worse for wear he'd found in a different abandoned home. He'd pulverized it with magic and found a small dripping spring on the mountain wall. He wondered where it was coming from and if he could get to it. Papyrus was reluctant to eat the wheat cereal, and he nearly refused it until Gaster pretended to turn and give his bowl to Sans. Sans ate his food like he'd never see any again.

During the night Sans would wake up hear his dad crying in another room. Sometimes he'd beg Vrinda for forgiveness, sometimes he begged her to tell him what to do, to help him help their children. He prayed and begged and sobbed, night after night.

One time Sans dared to peek inside… He saw his dad gripping the burnt and torn yellow dress of his mother. All of this scared Sans. He was really upset too, but to see his dad falling apart like this... It's terrifying to think that the only adult left in your life doesn't know what to do or how to fix every little thing... Sans has to help. Somehow he has to help his father! He has to be stronger for the two of them... Sans doesn't know how he'll do it when he himself is still trying to get used to life without his mom, but he has to help the parent he has left.

Sans insists that he takes care of Papyrus more often. Gaster is confused, but he'll occasionally take the offer when he has to leave to find more food. It's fun taking care of his brother, he thinks. He can make Pap laugh and giggle, and he helps him walk around their little stone house. Sans also tries to clean what little they have in the house. He'd clean furiously and quickly so that when his dad came home the place would be spotless. Gaster would smile and thank Sans for his hard work, promising him that someday he'll repay him for it all.

On another night, Gaster sneaks out of the house. Sans, the curious little boy he is, follows him. (Leaving his sleeping toddler brother behind...) He follows him all the way to where this all started. The place where the humans locked them away. "PLEASE WORK, PLEASE WORK, PLEASE WORK..." Gaster chants to no one. He lifts both hands and they flow a bright purple. A terrifying skull appears and floats next to him. Sans thinks he remembers it. Gaster showed it to them when they were on the run about a month ago. The glowing gets more intense, but now a white purple ball of magic is forming in the things maw. It opens its jaw wider and wider when the ball gets bigger. The sound when it releases the magic is loud and terrifying. It sounds like the skull is shouting and screaming at the same time. The magic crashing into the barrier is strong enough to shake the ground under Sans's little feet violently. He remembers now. The sound and the feeling. When his dad made Civetta take them away to a safe spot, he could hear this things shrieking all the way from where he was. This is what he used to fight the humans. And he still came back to them almost fatally wounded... The blaster stops its attack on the barrier and Gaster falls to his knees. He used a lot of magic... But he stands up and starts pounding and punching the barrier covered rocks, as if that will do something.

"MY SONS," Gaster says. "DON'T DESERVE THIS... HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY CHILDREN?" He punches the wall.

"YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM THEM... THE SUN, THE GRASS, THEIR MOTHER WHO DID NOTHING BUT PROTECT THEM..." Sans could see his eye glowing purple, tears forming and reflecting the light of it.

()

Food is running out and it's not looking good... Gaster decides he has to go out and explore more, past the ruins. A decently sized group of monsters all think the same thing. No one really knows who started this group, but they all head off. Sans insisted again that he'd care for Papyrus. It takes a few hours for the group to return. And for the first time in a month and a half, Gaster comes back to his boys with a real smile on.

"Dad what did you find?" Sans asks happily, seeing the clear joy on his dad's face finally.

"SOME PLACE I THINK YOU'LL LOVE A LOT. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT?" Gaster asks.

"Yeah!" Gaster picks Papyrus up and holds Sans's hand and walks off. Others are moving with him. Including the flame family and a huge family of bunnies and a family of dogs. The walk is long and weird. More traps and pitfalls. But eventually... a big hole in a purple wall appears and a cold breeze blows through. When they walk through, a bright light blinds Sans. Once he adjusts, he sees... Snow. Snow covered bushes and trees. Little Froggit's jump around. And some Whimsun's float around too. It looks like some monsters have already found their homes here. Maybe they already lived here before the mountain was sealed up. Maybe they just found the place faster than the others. Or maybe these were the monsters that lead everyone else who wanted to come out of the ruins.

"Daddy there's snow everywhere! How? We're underground!"

"I HAVE SOME THEORIES, BUT I'M NOT QUITE SURE. BUT WHAT I DID FIND WITH SOME OTHERS IS THAT THERE'S FOOD HERE. LOTS OF IT. AND I THINK THIS IS WHERE THE WATER WAS COMING FROM. MELTED SNOW."

It's beautiful. The more forest comfortable monsters have already fled into the woods. Sans runs around in the snow happily and Papyrus wiggles in Gaster's arms, wanting to be let down to play as well. Gaster puts him down and watches his youngest toddle around after his brother, trying to step into his footsteps. The other monsters walk around wide eyed, surprised that there's an inside snow area. It's a huge forest. Gaster leads his sons through and through, walking over already made bridges. There's one really long bridge that Gaster picks both of his boys up for. He looks down nervously and forces himself to look forward. Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down….

"Are you scared of heights daddy?" Sans asks. Gaster laughs nervously.

"N-NO OF COURSE NOT. DON'T BE SILLY. IT-IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE GOING TO FALL OR ANYTHING, HAHAHA!" Sans giggles at his daddy and looks all around. He can't believe how BIG the inside of this mountain is. Down below are entire forests, just as big as the ones on the surface. It's amazing.

Behind him he can hear one child, just a bit older than Sans, messing around on the bridge. He isn't talking, but he seems to be having fun. Gaster looks back at the child, Flameheart's son. He never learned the child's name, but the kid's making him nervous…

Gaster's family gets across the bridge and he lets out a huge slightly terrified breath.

"PHEW…"

"Ah!" comes a small voice. Gaster looks back and hears Flameheart gasp with a huge breath.

"NO!" Flameheart shouts, ready to jump over the edge himself. Gaster rushes forward and sees Flameheart's son falling and flailing his arms and legs wildly. He summons up all of his magic and throws his holed hand out to the child. A giant skeleton hand with a hole in it rushes to the child. The hole closes with magic and the hand becomes slightly more filled in.

"Gaster please!" Flameheart shouts at him. But Gaster doesn't hear him. He doesn't NEED to hear him. All he needs to know is that someone needs him.

The hand flies under the flame child's body and slows, catching him softly. Gaster cups his own hands and a second magical one appears by the one holding the child hundreds of feet down. He focuses and lifts the magic hands up and up and up, and finally over to him, setting the boy on his shaky terrified feet. The child grabs onto Gaster's shirt and clings to him breathing hard.

"THERE THERE, YOU'RE OKAY NOW." Gaster says, putting his hands on the boys back.

"Grillby!" Flameheart shouts, rushing over to him off the bridge. The flame child, Grillby, turns around and runs to his dad. Flameheart crashes to his knees and hugs his son who smashes into his chest tighter than ever. Gaster watches and looks for his own sons. Sans is standing there in shock while Papyrus is clapping with his tiny hands and a huge smile. He doesn't know what's going on, but he saw his daddy being awesome and that's all that matters to Papyrus. Gaster walks over to them and gets on one knee.

"DO NOT /EVER/ PLAY ON THAT BRIDGE." He says quietly to them. Sans nods quickly.

"Gaster." Flameheart says. Gaster turns around only to be hugged tightly by the man. For only a second, he expects to be burnt, but remembers that flame monsters don't get hot unless they make it so.

"Thank you so much for saving my son." Flameheart grabs Gaster's shoulders and leans back, small tears forming (and subsequently evaporating) on his white eyes.

"I… I've already lost so many… and if I lost my son…." He shakes his head and looks down. Gaster puts a hand on Flameheart's (surprisingly solid) arm and looks right in his eyes.

"I UNDERSTAND. I'M GLAD I WAS ABLE TO HELP. I CAN'T IMAGINE LOSING MY BOYS AFTER ALL THIS." He gives one nod and the two men smack each other on the arms. Grillby walks up shyly and finally says something.

"….. Thank you." Gaster smiles at him and nods.

"YOU'RE WELCOME. I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU'LL DO THAT EVER AGAIN HUH?" Grillby shakes his head and holds his dad's hand. Sans and Papyrus run up to Gaster and hug his legs. The children all make eye contact with each other and then so do the fathers. They wonder if a weird friendship will evolve.

More walking. Eventually they find a place with just one very old wooden building. "Inn" it says. But that's it. Some bunny monsters walk inside and take a peek. But they have to quickly bound and run away as the small inn collapses on itself after a couple hundred years. The travelers look at the building defeated… But not all of them. Some of them look around and talk about being able to build new places. They are literally SURROUNDED by trees! So some of the monsters begin to cut down the surrounding trees, making a little path.

"I want to keep going dad!" Sans says. "I want to see more!" Gaster wonders if it's a good idea to be separated from the group, but when he sees others deciding to head forward too, he decides that it's alright.

The snowy place is so pretty. Just flat snowy land with trees covered in a blanket of snow. There's only ONE set of spikes! Gaster sarcastically things "it's a miracle."

Eventually the snow disappears and waterfalls are everywhere. It's a bit darker, but Sans likes that the walls have been cut so cleanly, leaving sparkling glittering rock behind. A big waterfall is unbridged so Gaster thinks it's probably shallow enough to walk across. But he lets others go before him to see how they fare. And it's all very easy. So he crosses as well, holding his sons up in his arms. Vrinda always told him that oceans and lakes and pools were a huge no no for the children because they'd sink right to the bottom. And he takes her advice very seriously, wondering if she's gone through a similar situation and knows firsthand how scary it is.

Talking flowers repeat everything they hear. Sans goes up to them and says hi to every single one he can find, and they all, of course, say "hi" back. Water and cat tail water sausages glow brightly, too brightly for some. There are glowing mushrooms and glowing trees. It's very impressive actually and Papyrus screams in excitement at it all. There's a branching path that leads down to a slightly smelly water covered area. It's…. garbage. It's literal garbage that seems to have flowed in from the surface all the way down here into a sort of dump. Aaand of course, the boys want to rummage around in it. Gaster doesn't let them naturally. But he can't say no when Sans sees and wants a cool toy that some spoiled brat human threw in the garbage. Gaster examines it and deems it worthy of taking home. And of course that means he has to let Papyrus pick something out as well. He just prays that it's not a cloth with…. Gross human stuff on it or something. Because once Papyrus wants something, he WILL get it, or it's complete hell for him. Luckily Sans finds something for him and Papyrus loves it.

After another long while, it starts to get hot. Gaster travels and travels, some monsters in front and some monsters behind him. There are little crystals and lamps that light the way down a hidden path and if someone didn't touch a lamp, then darkness would overtake them until someone found one. It's such a long way, but the entire time Sans is very excited to see all this new cool looking stuff. Gaster on the other hand is beginning to get tired of this place.

The heat. God the heat. Gaster knew that snow had to be caused from something. The heat blasts through the underground and by the time it gets to the other side of the mountain, it becomes snow and cools down rapidly. The moisture from the heat becomes snowflakes. Well, he THINKS that's how that works… He didn't get a lot of time to read up on mountain weather on the surface….

Gaster refuses to go far into this hellish place. If his boys fall, then he might not be able to save them in time and he refuses to risk it. Sans doesn't object to leaving this hot place.

Another month passes. Gaster has kept the boys in their home in the ruins until he's built their new home in the snowy place that has jokingly become called "Snowdin" because of the obvious play on words of being snowed in. Gaster and other monsters who've helped usually use their magic to lift pieces of wood and slam nails into place. Where do they get all the materials? Well the woods for one thing. But nails? From the dump of course. Sans and Papyrus LOVE going to the dump in Waterfall (because no one wanted to bother making a name for a place that was CLEARLY made to be called "waterfall") and Gaster happens to like going there now too. He revels in the stupidity of humans, unknowingly helping the monsters they cast away into darkness.

When Sans and Papyrus don't journey with Gaster to the dump, the two hang out with Flameheart's son, Grillby. Papyrus doesn't understand it all much, but someone to play with is always welcome. Sans tires to make jokes to Grillby, but they're never enough to make the mute child laugh. He'll try them on Gaster when he gets home from the dump with nails and even a rolled up carpet and his dad chuckles at most.

After another month, the house is completed. A few houses are completed. At the start of the little town is an inn and a shop that are small, but Gaster thinks that if they keep building, everything around here will get bigger. More homes are made, more monsters move from the ruins to Snowdin and even Asgore and Toriel visit to see the progress. Gaster glares at them when they pass. Of course they only show up AFTER all the work is done.

Finally most of the construction of Snowdin is done and the other builders move into Waterfall to make homes there for the more watery type monsters. Gaster stays behind in his home with the children. Papyrus turns one and Sans turns four. Gaster does everything he can to get them presents and decorations. He finds an educational stack of books for Sans, and some coloring books with some broken crayons and a wooden car with paint on it for Papyrus. They both love their gifts and Gaster can't help but feel accomplished. He thinks that Vrinda would be proud of him…

Gaster never gives up on trying to destroy the barrier. He'll often float up to the ceiling of the mountain and pound at it with giant magic fists, travel back to the ruins to see if he can break open an escape path from the one patch of sun in the ruins. But it never happens. He wonders then if magic won't work on this damn barrier, maybe human made science can. Gaster finds school books thrown away in the dump in waterfall and reads them all front to back, taking the weirdly abundant amount of chemical waste and trying to get it to explode the rocks away.

At some point, Sans walks with his brother all the way to the dump so they can be with their dad. Gaster apologizes and says he'll take the stuff home. But Sans tells him not to.

"If you're finding the good stuff here, then we should stay here. Papyrus and I like it here anyway." He insists. Gaster SAYS that he'll take them all home… but it's a week later and Gaster hasn't even slept. He's got black marks under his sockets and he almost can't even hold up his experiments. Gaster takes the boys home and feeds them the best food he can find, which is usually fruits of vegetables that he's filled with magic. He always knew he was a terrible cook. Or at least he's not as good as Vrinda was… But the children eat their food, (even Papyrus) somehow knowing that their dad really is doing his best.

Another month later, Gaster is back in the dump trying to get something done. He manages a few small explosions and tries them on the barrier wherever he can find a spot and uses what he's learned on it. But it doesn't even scratch the rocks.

Without his knowing, monsters have moved into Hotland and have started to build there. Monsters have even walked by him with rather large metal parts and have begun building metal pipe bridges in Hotland. (You know, because they're all super original with names… Gaster wonders if Asgore named Waterfall and Hotland secretly. He was never good at naming things.) But Gaster didn't even notice the other monsters because he was so focused on his work.

After a while, someone passes Gaster in the dump. It's Toriel and Asgore. Gaster ignores them, but he can hear them whispering. Asgore in his favor and Toriel sounding iffy about something.

"IF YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO ME THEN PLEASE SAY IT BEFORE I OVERHEAR SOMETHING I SHOULDN'T." Gaster says to them point blank. Toriel seems worried she's been caught, but Asgore just smiles and walks to him, even through the disgusting waters of the dump.

"Gaster," he says. "You've been working very hard. I've seen and heard all you and the others are doing. But your uh… dabbling into science I think will be really useful. To everyone! Tori and I have been wondering if we need a sort of… advisor. Assistant?... Uh…" Asgore scratches his head and looks back at Toriel silently asking for her help. She sighs and walks into the water next to Asgore.

"We need your help Wingdings Gaster. There are few monsters that are as well versed in scientific studies as you are. And I think your thoughts on using science instead of magic to break the barrier is probably the key we need to break it. So what we want to know is if you'll please work for us as a uh…. A royal scientist if you will. The goal being to help everyone in the underground to escape this place…. Please help us all like you have so many times before."

Gaster stares at the Queen in slight shock. He's not entirely sure what to make of this… Cynical man that he is, he can't keep his mouth shut.

"WHAT DO MY SONS AND I GET OUT OF WORKING FOR YOU?" Gaster says flatly.

"We'll provide you with anything you need. Clothes, food… Money probably in the future." Asgore says. Gaster can't help but appreciate Asgore's straightforward answer about the money. Not that he thinks money will do much good underground… trade might be a better option unless they can find enough coins or whatever to circulate…

"I'LL THINK ABOUT IT. WHERE EXACTLY… WOULD I BE WORKING? IS THERE EVEN A WORK /PLACE/ TO GO?"

"Hotland, Snowdin, Waterfall? I imagine any place would be good to work for now. But Tori and I are thinking of moving further in. It's beginning to get over crowded."

Gaster outwardly bursts into irritated laughter.

"OVERCROWDED?" He says in shock. "WE'VE BEEN IN HERE FOR LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS AND YOU THINK WE'RE OVERCROWDED?" Gaster shakes his head. Of course the royals would get claustrophobic with a few stray monsters near their home.

"WHATEVER… FINE. I'LL TAKE THE JOB. BUT MY SONS GET EVERYTHING FIRST. THEY NEED FOOD… AND I REFUSE TO TAKE THEM TO HOTLAND WITH ME. AT LEAST FOR NOW."

"That'll be fine. We actually got here from a monster in a boat. They got us all the way here from Hotland in just a few minutes in some back water routes." Asgore says a little too cheerily, as if he hadn't just implied that this huge underground place was overcrowded. Gaster wonders who this boat person is… but decides he should check them out. If they can get to and from Hotland without actually having to travel very far IN to Hotland, then he thinks taking the boys might not be as dangerous as he thought.

Once Gaster returns home with the good (?) news, Sans is overjoyed for his father. His dad finally has a job, something that will keep him busy and hopefully distracted from the stress he's been under. And of course he's happy to hear of the food they'll be getting from the royal family. He wonders where all this food was before.

Gaster starts work for the royals a week later and he finds that there is a person in a purple cloak on the river in Snowdin.

"I am the Riverman. Or am I the RiverWOMAN? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride my boat. Would you care to join me?" They say in an indistinguishable voice. Gaster warily gets in the boat and is glad that his boys aren't with him and are instead being babysat by Flameheart and his son.

"Do you want to go to Waterfall or Hotland?" They say again.

"UH… HOTLAND." Gaster says. The boat begins to move. They're both quiet for a few minutes until the person says "Tra la la. Uh oh, suddenly feeling tropical…" Gaster has no idea what they're talking about, but decides not to ask…

They show up in Hotland and the Riverperson says something like "thanks for riding" or whatever, but Gaster is too dumbfounded by Hotland that he can see ahead of him. It's glowing it's so hot. Gaster says thanks and walks forward. On the path is Asgore waiting for Gaster. He looks very overheated. With that fur and all… He and Asgore talk for a bit about what Gaster will be doing. Gaster halts the conversation.

"I… I HATE TO ADMIT THIS, BUT I DON'T THINK I CAN DO ALL OF THIS WORK BY MYSELF… I NEED HELP. AND YOU KNOW, I HAVE JUST THE PERSON TO ASK." Gaster says. The meeting is long after that, and when Gaster returns to Snowdin, he returns to the ruins and starts shouting.

"CIVETTA!" When the humans were pushing everyone inside the ruins, he lost contact with Civetta. He couldn't find her. And honestly, he didn't want to find her. Or anyone. He wanted to be left alone. But now he hopes that Civetta will forgive him for not seeking her out. Gaster walks around and shouts her name until the few remaining monsters in the ruins point him in the direction of his friend. He finds her house and shouts to her, just like he did when he was a kid back on their farm homes when they got done with chores. And just like before Civetta pops her poofy feathered head out. Her beak turns up into a smile and she flies out of a purple window from a top floor. She lands hard in front of Gaster, towering over him by an extra foot. She grabs him in a hug and swings him around.

"Gaster! I thought I wasn't going to see you again! It's been a pretty long time. I hear from some others that you've been busy though."

"YES…. I'M SORRY I HAVEN'T TRIED TO GET A HOLD OF YOU UNTIL NOW… AND FOR A SELFISH REASON. I NEED YOUR HELP."

"When DON'T you need my help, Dingbat?" Civetta says happily. Gaster smiles at her a little and explains to her the situation. Of course Civetta agrees. She even decides to move to Snowdin so she can be closer to him and the boys.

Everything starts to work out. Civetta babysits the boys sometimes, she helps him with the work that the royals have allowed them to make all on their own to break the barrier and she remains a great friend.

Gaster finds himself with a small locker in his Snowdin home. In it are several lab coats…

And one ruined yellow dress.

He closes the locker after looking at it with a promise.

"WE WILL ESCAPE. AND I'LL DO IT ALL FOR YOU AND THE BOYS… I LOVE YOU VRINDA, MY ANGEL."

(End)


End file.
